Quote from: TomUnderSea on June 25, 2013, 04:27:49 PM

Just wondering if it is possible to remotely hack a 2013 Mercedes C250 instrument system and set throttle to full? Or would a separate remote control device need planting on the vehicle to effect such an outcome?

Sorry. Lost the quote codes...

http://autos.yahoo.com/mercedes-benz/c-class/2013/c250-coupe/features.html

It looks like there is electrical assistance for steering, throttle, and brake controls. Whether these can override operator inputs to the point of causing a lethal accident is an open question.

A hack versus an external device is also an open question. There certainly is a capability to remotely operate subsystems.

I'm thinking I will be sticking with older model, manual vehicles.

Yes, it appears so... (piece of article)

From the International Business Times: http://www.ibtimes.com/michael-hastings-car-hacking-theory-latest-attempt-explain-suspicious-death-richard-clarke-says

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Hastings car may have been hacked. Richard Clarke, the former chief counter-terrorism adviser on the National Security Council, believes that Hastings death may have been the result of a cyberattack on his car.

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In an interview with the Huffington Post, Clarke said that given current knowledge about hacking cars, the fatal, single car crash involving Hastings 2013 Mercedes C250 coupe, was consistent with a car cyberattack.

Clarke said that not only does the technology to hack cars exist, but there is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers, like the United States, are already equipped to stage such an attack.

"What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the brakes on, to launch an air bag," Clarke said. "You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it's not that hard."

"So if there were a cyberattack on the car -- and I'm not saying there was, I think whoever did it would probably get away with it, he added.

Clarkes comments likely referenced a 2011 study completed by computer scientists from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Washington, which found that it was possible for hackers to remotely gain access to a persons vehicle, and potentially assume control of some the basic functions. In an article on the study, The New York Times reported that embedded cellular connections used in vehicles manufactured by GM, Toyota, Lexus, Ford, BMW and Mercedes Benz were all capable of being remotely undermined by hackers.

These cellular channels offer many advantages for attackers, the report said. They can be accessed over arbitrary distance (due to the wide coverage of cellular data infrastructure) in a largely anonymous fashion, typically have relatively high bandwidth, are two-way channels (supporting interactive control and data exfiltration) and are individually addressable.

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