Chinese hackers take command of Tesla Model S

[Dietrichw]

Source

 

 

The first documented successful hack of a Tesla Model S has come from China, Chinese security giant Qihoo 360 Security Technology announced Thursday.

 

The hackers were attempting to win $10,000 in prize money at a kick-off event during the SyScan +360 security conference, which is co-sponsored by Qihoo. They were able to gain remote control of the car's door locks, headlights, wipers, sunroof, and horn, Qihoo 360 said on its social networking Sina Weibo account. The security firm declined to reveal details at this point about how the hack was accomplished, although one report indicated that the hackers cracked the six-digit code for the Model S' mobile app.

 

The Sina Weibo post warned Tesla drivers to "be careful" when driving in the rain, to avoid becoming a "drowned rat" in case the sunroof suddenly opens

 

Qihoo 360 said it reported the hack to Tesla and offered to work with the automaker to fix the vulnerability.

[LePawel]

Whopise. What's the point behind any of the mentioned hacked stuff being left public in software, accessible through internet...

[Nineshadow]

That was fast.

[Coolnesgamer]

hmmmmm

[HexaGuy]

Cool. 

 

"Drowned rat". Gotta love that translation.

[ShadowCaptain]

That was fast.

 

mhm I expected it to take a while

 

Then again... chinese hackers tend do get this stuff done quickly

[ericlee30]

Hell yeah

[GlassBomb]

I actually don't mind that they hacked the Model S. I mean, that IS why they put up the $10,000 'price' for it.

 

$10k is a small price to pay for automotive manufacturers to find things that could cripple them later on. This way they will be able to patch things up before they become more known.

[Socky]

Wow that's cool and bad and awesome that they offered to help fix it. Gotta love hackers

[brownninja97]

Hopefully this isnt used in the wrong way.

[theroflcopta]

Most companies hire internal hackers to try and break their stuff constantly to patch holes in the protection. Doing it publicly and offering a reward just guarantees it will happen faster and more people might find more holes. Better then paying someone full time : P

[techswede]

@Builder

Is this the model you have?

Ah. It was the roadster. Nevermind

[dalekphalm]

Yep as others have mentioned, this is actually a very common business practice for corporate networks and software giants. As an example, Microsoft (And Google too I believe?) offers a bounty if someone finds a vulnerability or bug in their software (as long as it meets certain requirements - I'm not sure what the requirements are).

 

The whole point of the $10,000 prize was to get people to FIND the vulnerabilities, so that Tesla can go plug the holes.

 

This is great news, and honestly I'm not surprised it was a Chinese security firm... they uh... get a lot of practice if you know what I mean

 

This will help prevent people from maliciously hacking Tesla cars in the real world, where it could be dangerous or used for illegal activities like assassination, harassment, or stealing cars.

[dalekphalm]

Honestly any major company who DOESN'T do this, well, they need a serious reality check for the 21st Century. The fact that, for example, Valve ignored a KNOWN EXPLOIT in Steam even after a Dev pointed it out to them, is shocking, and really lowered my opinion of Valve. It goes to show that even the "most well liked" companies aren't perfect.

[Phillyphries]

them Chinese hackers, fam

 

they don't play

[shujin]

that's really cool that they have hacking contest it is fun for people to participate, fun for people to watch, winner get a reward and that help society as we say in french ''tout bénef''