▲NCC Group researcher unlocked Tesla with a device connected to a laptop. (Photo: Captured from The Telegraph YouTube video)



Unlock and drive with a small device that connects to your laptop
Last year, 28% of cybersecurity attacks were related to automobiles

Millions of digital locks worldwide that use Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), including Tesla cars, have been found to have hacking vulnerabilities.

Reuters shared a video on the 17th showing a researcher from NCC Group, a cybersecurity company, unlocking and driving a 2021 Tesla Model Y vehicle with a small device attached to a laptop.

The NCC Group said it has proven a vulnerability in the BLE protocol, saying that not only cars but also smart home locks can be hacked in the same way.

He then emphasized that the vulnerability discovered this time is not a bug that can be fixed with a software patch, and that BLE Bluetooth was not originally designed to be used for locking purposes.

I can't even imagine what could happen if this hacking technique were used for evil purposes.

In the video, it was just a simple case of unlocking a car, but in a future where connected cars are the norm, the risk of hacking is very high.

Connected cars can be exposed to threats such as malware, data manipulation, and hardware-level physical attacks from hackers, which can threaten the safety of vehicle drivers, cause personal data loss, and even affect the manufacturer's business.

In particular, among the cybersecurity attacks that occurred in 2021, vehicle theft and internal control system theft accounted for 28.4%, leading to data leaks (30%) occurred the most frequently.

In a presentation on “The Present and Future of Automotive Cybersecurity and Infineon’s Response Measures” at the e4ds webinar, Infineon’s Kyungsoo Lee said, “Many standards organizations and automobile and semiconductor manufacturers are working together to create guidelines, standards, and regulations for automotive cybersecurity.”

He continued, “There is no such thing as perfect security. New threats are constantly emerging, so it is important to analyze, supplement, maintain, and manage them.”