Smart vehicles outsmarted: The top 20 most hackable cars revealed

Security experts say that the 2014 Jeep Cherokee and upcoming 2015 Cadillac Escalade were the most vulnerable to hackers.

15:31 11 August 2014

Security experts have studied 20 car makes and models to assess their level of vulnerability. According to their 92-page report that was presented at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas and which was shared with the Department of Transportation and industry group, the Society of Automobile Engineers concluded that the 2014 Jeep Cherokee and 2015 Cadillac Escalade were the most vulnerable to hackers. On the other hand, the most secured were the 2006 Ford Fusion and 2010 Range Rover Sport. 

 

Security experts Chris Valasek, who is the director of Security Intelligence at IOActiver, and Charlie Miller, who is a security engineer at Twitter, added that 2010 and 2014 Toyota Prius also performed poorly in their test as well as the 2014 Infiniti Q50. 

 

The cars were rated under three main categories – attack surface, network architecture, and cyber physical. 

 

‘Automotive security concerns have gone from the fringe to the mainstream with security researchers showing the susceptibility of the modern vehicle to local and remote attacks,’ said Mr Valasek and Mr Miller.

 

‘A malicious attacker leveraging a remote vulnerability could do anything from enabling a microphone for eavesdropping to turning the steering wheel to disabling the brakes.

 

‘Unfortunately, research has only been presented on three or four particular vehicles.

 

‘Each manufacturer designs their fleets differently; therefore analysis of remote threats must avoid generalities.

 

‘[Our research] takes a step back and examines the automotive network of a large number of different manufacturers from a security perspective.'

 

Fortunately many showrooms incuding Ford dealers in Indianopolis can offer advice when shoosing cars that are not susceptible to hacking. 

 

The top 20 most hackable cars are:

 

1.    2014 Jeep Cherokee
2.    2015 Cadillac Escalade
3.    2014 Ford Fusion
4.    2014 Dodge Ram 3500
5.    2014 BMW X3
6.    2014 Chrysler 300
7.    2014 Range Rover Evoque
8.    2014 Toyota Prius
9.    2010 Toyota Prius
10.    2014 Infiniti Q50
11.    2014 Audi A8
12.    2010 Infiniti G37
13.    2014 BMW 3 Series
14.    2014 BMW i12
15.    2014 Dodge Viper
16.    2014 Honda Accord LX
17.    2010 Range Rover Sport
18.    2006 Range Rover Sport
19.    2006 Toyota Prius
20.    2006 Ford Fusion