Chrysler Jeep Cherokee, Nissan Infiniti Q50 among most hackable cars

In a glaring exposure, the cyber security experts have cautioned the auto makers Chrysler and Nissan against the possible threat on their profitable car models, saying their vehicles are among the three “most hackable” cars along with a General Motors model.

Cyber crime researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek said that they carried study on the online threat to automobiles and found that out of the 20 reviewed car models, the vehicles with most vulnerability to hackers were the 2014 Jeep Cherokee of Chrysler Group and 2014 Infiniti Q50 of Nissan Motor Co Ltd.

The report, studying the possible cyber threat to the leading vehicles, will be released on Wednesday at the Black Hat hacking conference in Las Vegas. According to the researchers who would be presenting the report and discuss its findings, the forum would be an awesome place where thousands of auto makers can learn about the emerging security threats to their vehicles.

When contacted, both Chrysler and Nissan said that they were currently reviewing the report and will act accordingly.

Chrysler Group’s spokesman Eric Mayne said, “We will endeavor to verify these claims and, if warranted, we will re-mediate them.”

Meanwhile, Nissan also said that it was currently reviewing the survey results.

“There is ‘no indication’ that the authors tried to exploit any cyber vulnerabilities in the Q50,”Nissan said.

Meanwhile, the General Motors also turned down the requests for comment.

Security engineer Miller, director of vehicle security research at IOActive, said that they carried assessment of car safety against remote attacks. He says the vehicles were not tested for safety by his company but it reviewed key aspects of the vehciles, including remote access technologies like Bluetooth and WiFi. They were first tested as they are the best mode for hackers to gain control of the systems.

The researches also released their assessments of ‘hackability’ in order to make consumers understand the cyber security and the threat of vehicles and get the best car.

“This doesn’t mean that the most susceptible looking isn’t in fact quite secure (i.e. coded very securely) or that the most secure looking isn’t in fact trivially exploitable,” researchers said in the report.

Expressing need of a more in-depth research on the security of a large number of vehicles, the report further called for a massive effort.