back to article Ford preps anti-hacking tech for in-car WiFi

Ford is developing anti-hacking technology in a bid to make upcoming in-car Wi-Fi systems resistant against drive-by downloads and other forms of computer security attacks. The next generation of Ford SYNC, a built-in vehicle comms and entertainment system developed by Ford and Microsoft, will come with secure Wi-Fi access and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Firewalls?!

    I would rather that the "operational processors" were separated from "entertainment and information systems" by a flipping air-gap, then a potentially penetrable firewall!

    I can see it now "Send us your credit card details or we disable your brakes"*

    *Not required in Toyotas

    1. Blofeld's Cat
      Big Brother

      Re: Firewalls?!

      But it will make law enforcement so much easier if they can use a back door to log in and stop your engine.

      Perhaps the next step will be...

      >BRONK!<

      "(X) You have exceeded the 30 mph speed limit by 0.00000001 mph. Your vehicle has been parked and the doors locked. Please wait until our officer arrives to arrest you. You are currently number 59,976 in the queue."

      1. The BigYin

        This is coming to the EU...

        ...and it's called "ISA" (Intelligent Speed Adaptation), it used to be called EVSC (External Vehicular Speed Control). The idea is that it will become impossible to break the speed limit. The car will only let you run up to the limit, no more. You will also be tracked (the car has to know where you are to figure out the limit).

        Of course, this would lead to a fall in all that lovely revenue from speeding fines, so may only go ahead in some watered-down form. What is also proposed is for the police to be able to issue a signal and your vehicle would automatically shut-off. Nice.

        It is also married to lane charging and other forms of state observation/taxation.

        And you can thank your freedom-hating Labour voters for it!

        Obey the machine, citizen!

  2. Bill Neal
    Thumb Up

    well...

    at least they're keeping the children out. I'm still amazed they partnered with m$ after the crap that is the original sync.

  3. pctechxp
    Happy

    @Doc Dish

    Agreed

    Although I suppose they are using SYNC as a test bed for building intelligent vehicles.

    C'mon, don't tell me you wouldn't want K.I.T.T. parked outside your local watering hole to drive you home when you've drunk so much you can't stand up.

  4. Mr Young
    WTF?

    I'm gonna be late for work today...

    I got in me car and turned the key and nothing happened? I looked online and it appears it's doing a fat software upgrade! Security feature apparently?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Can't think of a more suitable pair!

    Wow. Just wow. You have Ford, with their legendary acronyms (Found On Roadside Dead; Fix Or Repair Daily), in combination with Microsoft (reboot early, reboot often; Where do you want to go today, while you wait for windoze to reboot?)

    so i'll bet you're not going anywhere while you wait for the tow truck to arrive, that is after your microsoft powered car gets PWNED.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Did they actually...

    use Microsoft and security in the same sentence without a negative modifier? I guess all of the folks at Ford who used the Multics systems have retired....

  7. Volker Hett
    Happy

    It better have flash and multitasking

    and not vendor lockin and DRM, otherwise it will be a total failure like the iPad

    1. Chris Curtis
      FAIL

      The iPad was a flop?

      Talk about counting your chickens before they hatch.

      I hear a lot of techs saying the iPad is going to be a flop. I ALSO hear a lot of non-techies saying it WONT be a flop. Lets just do the numbers here. For every nerd out there saying it's going to flop, how many sales / account managers / mums dads / everyone else are there out there saying I love my iPhone I want an iPad.

      I find the iPad too hard to predict but I'm swaying towards success even though I don't see it.

      Fail because you said the iPad was a failure when you don't have a crystal ball!

  8. jake Silver badge

    Whatever.

    My network can talk to my neighbor's SYNC equipped Ford.

    Funny thing is I wasn't even trying ...

    The only question I have is why the fuck do people feel the need for this kind of shit in cars, for fsck's sake? 24/7 real-time connectivity isn't really useful, unless you're so insecure that you need constant ego-stroking ... in which case, seek help.

    We've all gone mad. Mad, I tell you ...

  9. Anonymous John

    Microsoft Driving Assistant?

    "It looks like you're parking the car. Would you like help?"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Microsoft Driving Assistant? 2.0

      "It looks like you're having a crash. Would you like help?"

  10. Fatman
    WTF?

    Ford & M$

    This gives new meaning to the phrase "drive by attacks". (As in 'quite literally')

    If i were to purchase a vehicle that has M$ technology in it; i would have it ripped out before I took it home. Same goes for "On Star".

    Who needs that sh!t??? Not ME!!!!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Microsoft and the T-Engine Forum

    "Ford is developing anti-hacking technology in a bid to make upcoming in-car WiFi systems resistant against drive-by downloads and other forms of computer security attacks"

    How so, tell me more ?

    "The next generation of Ford SYNC, a built-in vehicle comms and entertainment system developed by Ford and Microsoft, will come with secure WiFi access and a built-in browser running on top of a Windows CE operating system"

    I don't think so .. :)

    It's odd that they didn't go with the TRON project. But then again it wouldn't be the first time Microsoft joined a project in order to kill it off from the inside.

    http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/msvshistfact.html

  12. Richard Jukes

    Gentlemen...

    May we all observe for a moment, the unfortunate not far off death toll of an age of proper 'motor cars'.

    I dont want my car to have an OS, I dont want it to one day be tied into a particular brand of fuel via wifi! I dont want automatic robot satnav driving. I dont even want bloody ABS.

    I just want a really nice sounding large petrol engine - perhaps with a turbo.

    On the upside, what about that PML Electric Mini...500hp 4-wheel drive!

  13. Bill Neal
    Flame

    Sad...

    ...that such a great company continues to invite failure in this manner. Ford is the only US car maker pulling in a profit, and they think people don't deserve an open source solution? The only thing in the US that's WORSE than Sync is OnStar! talk about big brother, have you heard what they can do with it? and it only comes with GM brands. (government motors)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    I used to like Ford

    I am ashamed to say that I own and drive a Ford and my previous car was a Ford too. However to team up with M$oft takes their credibility down several notches. Windows CE? FFS! Want to be "protected from any bad devices out there, like memory sticks or whatever they put [into the vehicle]"? Simple solution from the onset - don't build your solution on WinCE.

    Makes me shudder to think that WinCE could be in the intelligent devices currently present in Ford vehicles. As my life could depend on it, I don't think my next car will be a Ford.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    It has to come...

    I cant wait, this will be the greatest motor upgrade ever. Just think of the new bunch of accidents that will join with the growing mobilephone-driving idiots. Wifi is about as bad as anything can be with M$ stuff, it is just too unreliable at connecting or retaining the connection. Everyone will be fiddling and faffing half of the trip trying to make the damn wifi work. C'mon guys, whats really wrong with hard-wired devices in the car. Just plug in the fuggin Ipod if your that sad and 'need' it for that 20min trip. As for phones, I dont even like the bluetooth brigade talking on the phone whilst driving - having tried it over the last few years I now refuse to answer my phone when driving - you simply can not pay enough attention to the roads which is full of idiots who must have paid someone to pass the test for them.

    I watch every day the stupid mistakes people make with their inability to drive in a straight line (lets not even discuss turning or roundabouts) due to fiddling with gadgets, car buttons and such. If you are the driver, drive, dont fugg around and risk denting my motor, or worse.

    So I am not in favour in the slightest of in-car computers of any form - at all - ever.

    And then there is the belief they have that they can make this 'secure'. Are they really that dumb that they think nobody will ever in the lifetime of the car be able to crack any system they create?

    If we even take a cursory look at history, its totally littered with 'secure' systems having unforeseen weaknesses.

    Whilst there has always been crooks who can tamper with your car, they until now needed to be standing in front of it and physically tampering. Ford (and others) want to make their lives easier for sure. So you park your car for the night, or in the office car-park and the little oiks sit there with their cheapo netbooks bashing away whilst your adding up the accounts for the boss all day.

    Stupidity at its best.

  16. Keith Oldham

    Blue windscreen of death ?

    That is all

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows CE?!

    Hahahaha...

    Talk about coming to the party late... The Carputer brigade have been installing full blown operating systems ranging from Windows to Linux in cars for years.

    My own personal setup has sat nav with live traffic info and syncs automatically to my NAS when it pulls up outside my house and spots the wireless. Then shuts itself down when it's finished.

    Browser via bluetooth tether to mobile... Check

    Hands free via carputar bluetooth link... Check

    WPA2 encypted link... Check

    Isolation from other car systems... Total!

    I think I'll stick with my version, it's also got antivirus!

  18. Antony King
    Pirate

    Unsafe

    That's it, I'm off to earn me a pilot's license. Fords are scary enough on the roads without them being jam packed with MS software!

  19. Ascylto
    Gates Horns

    WTF?

    Where would you like to go today?

    Work.

    Please repeat.

    Work.

    Please repeat.

    Work.

    I'm sorry, Windows doesn't recognise this. Windows is now shutting down.

  20. Ascylto
    Gates Horns

    A Marriage made in Heaven ...

    The Ford and Microsoft communion was inevitable and this is where Ford's Kinetic Design comes in ... it makes the vehicle look as though it's moving even when it isn't.

    The perfect union!

  21. Ascylto
    Gates Horns

    A Marriage made in Heaven ...

    Sorry ... that should have read ...

    A MIRAGE made in Heaven!

  22. Tim #3

    Systems & error logging

    There is one major issue this software must address. I am continually surprised that it is not mandatory for cars to have full logging systems for all their safety related systems. Some accidents are caused by technical failures - the obvious Toyota throttle, less well known ones agffecting stability control systems & ABS on other makes - yet the systems hold no logs of these. Some motorcycles are even designed with inherently unstable steering & electronic steering dampers, yet here is no logging of a fault. Accident investigation must be an impossible job nowdays, yet simple small logs of the most recent operation cycles could be used to increase safety for all of us.

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