“By infecting a Tesla owner’s phone with Android malware, a car thief can hack and then steal a Tesla car, security researchers have revealed this week,” Catalin Cimpanu reports for BleepingComputer.
“Previous attempts to hack Tesla cars attacked the vehicle’s on-board software itself. This is how Chinese security researchers from Keen Lab have managed to hack a Tesla Model S last month, allowing an attacker to control a car from 12 miles away,” Cimpanu reports. “Security experts from Norwegian security firm Promon have taken a different approach, and instead of trying complicated attacks on the car’s firmware, they have chosen to go after Tesla’s Android app that many car owners use to interact with their vehicle.”
“Since the attacker has already rooted the user’s phone, the attacker can alter the Tesla app and send a copy of the victim’s username and password to the attacker,” Cimpanu reports. “With this data in hand, the attacker can perform a series of actions, such as using the car’s keyless driving functionality and start the engine, open doors, or track the car on the road. Other actions are also theoretically possible, but researchers haven’t tested all of them.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Now you just have to find a fragmandroid cheapskate who owns a $70,000+ Tesla.
Good luck with that.
SEE ALSO:
Poor man’s iPhone: Android on the decline – February 26, 2015
Study: iPhone users are smarter and richer than those who settle for Android phones – January 22, 2015
Why Android users can’t have the nicest things – January 5, 2015
iPhone users earn significantly more than those who settle for Android phones – October 8, 2014
Yet more proof that Android is for poor people – June 27, 2014
More proof that Android is for poor people – May 13, 2014
Android users poorer, shorter, unhealthier, less educated, far less charitable than Apple iPhone users – November 13, 2013
IDC data shows two thirds of Android’s 81% smartphone share are cheap junk phones – November 13, 2013
CIRP: Apple iPhone users are younger, richer, and better educated than those who settle for Samsung knockoff phones – August 19, 2013
iPhone users smarter, richer than Android phone users – August 16, 2011
Study: Apple iPhone users richer, younger, more productive than other so-called ‘smartphone’ users – June 12, 2009
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edison Carter” for the heads up.]