The Toyota Prius undergoes a stringent hack test at F-Secure's underground facility
The Toyota Prius undergoes a stringent hack test at F-Secure's underground facility

Toyota stalls Bluetooth car hack

Another urban legend bites the dust

Iain Thomson

After recent reports suggesting the possibility of hacking the computer system of certain cars remotely with a Bluetooth phone, Finnish security firm F-Secure tried to replicate the feat. It had no success.

F-Secure tested a Toyota Prius in its underground facility but, despite repeated attempts, achieved only a minor Bluetooth hack.

Advertisement

"We managed to find one minor issue with the system, in which a corrupted phone name would freeze the onboard display. But otherwise the Prius Bluetooth system was far more stable than our test phones and PCs," said Jarno Niemela, a researcher at F-Secure's laboratory.

"We had to reboot our test systems several times as the Bluetooth systems died on us, while the Toyota Prius just kept going. It was definitely one of the more interesting virus tests we've done for quite a while."

The team believed it had had some success when the car's doors locked, every warning light lit up and the onboard computer registered a serious failure. However, it turned out to be nothing to do with Bluetooth, but simply that the car's battery was low.

The rumour of viruses affecting cars started in January when security company Kaspersky was asked to investigate an apparently infected car. No details of actual infections have ever been published.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Tags:

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Social networking

Summit: How businesses should manage their brands online

In part one of V3.co.uk's interview with Dirk Singer, he dicusses social media monitoring strategies

RIM discusses new developer tools

Blackberry exec on the latest offerings for programmers

Analysis and Reports

Remote access - Three steps to getting connected

3.4 million UK professionals now work from home – is your company equipped?

Cost benefits of a global collaboration network

This white paper is a must read for organisations looking for evidence of the bottom-line benefits of high-definition video and voice communications

Poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

Impact of Information Overload poll

What is the biggest problem your firm faces as a result of the data explosion?

View poll results

Advertisement

White paper library

Keep up to date with the latest products, services and technologies from the world's leading IT companies; IThound.com brings you over 6,000 white papers, case studies and analyst reports.

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Advertisement

Spotlight

Alcatel-Lucent logo

Summit: Networks swamped by information overload

Alcatel-Lucent's Neal Tilley talks about how enterprises and carriers can...

EU flag

Breach notification laws get green light

Privacy rights strengthened in Europe

Richard Thomas

Summit: Richard Thomas advises on handling the data deluge

Former Information Commissioner speaks out on government databases and data...

oracle sun

War of words escalates between EU and Oracle

Commission comes out fighting after criticism from Oracle and Washington

Primary Navigation