Have you ever wondered whether your car could be hacked? Nowadays, cars have computers built into them, and some of those are connected to the internet. Doesn’t that make them vulnerable? In the mid 2000s, a team of computer scientists in Tadayoshi Kohno’s group at the University of Washington and in Stefan Savage’s group at the University of California, San Diego, began thinking about this problem. Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, they started working methodically to try to break into a car electronically (well, two cars, actually, one at each university), to probe whether someone would be able to do so.

Modern-day cars have tens of computers built into them, built and programmed by many different companies, and assembled into a highly complex system. The team found that all the different manufacturers involved in producing the car’s computer systems had not yet worked together on protecting the cars from cyber-attacks. That left little gaps that the team was able to exploit. They learnt more and more, until they found that they were able to remotely take over the entire car. Turn its radio on or off, disable the brakes, use the car’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations in it, drive the car, and on and on. Full control. Not just one car – they had developed the know-how to remotely have full control over millions of cars.

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Before publishing their work, they quietly approached car manufacturers and told them about the problem. After all, the team’s goal was not to take over the nation’s fleet of cars. Their goal was to help improve car safety. Their work led to major new awareness and efforts across the industry to work on systematic cybersecurity, and cars today are far safer. No, your car can’t be remotely hacked through the internet – thanks to this National Science Foundation-funded effort.