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Your car is a giant computer - and it can be hacked

Imagine driving down the highway at 70 miles per hour, when suddenly the wheel turns hard right. You crash. And it was because someone hacked your car.
It's not far-fetched science fiction. It's the near-term future today's hackers are warning about.

Most people aren't aware their cars are already high-tech computers. And now we'renetworking them by giving them wireless connectivity. Yet there's a danger to turning your car into a smartphone on wheels: It makes them a powerful target for hackers.
Interviews with automakers, suppliers and security advisers reveal a major problem with the new wave of "connected" cars: The inside of your car has ancient technology that presents a security risk.

The computer code in cars isoutdated. It's similar to the on/off switches used in industrial controls. It's easily manipulated.
Much like the human central nervous system, every electronic part inside a car is connected to a central spine. Tap one part, you can likely reach any other.

Cars' computers were built safely enough back in the 1990s, when the car was a closed box. But their architecture won't hold up as we hookthem up to the Internet.
Related story: Tesla car doors can be hacked

Consider the level of complexity of modern day cars -- and the chance for a screw up. The space ship that put humans on the moon, Apollo 11, had 145,000 lines of computer code. The Android operating system has 12 million. A modern car? Easily 100 million lines of code.

The nightmare scenario: Hackers access your car's corecontrols by breaching its Internet-connected entertainment system and tamper with your brakes.
Hackers have already proven that scenario can happen. Security engineers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek demonstrated last year how they could hijack control of a car by connecting laptops to the dashboard.
But cars are going wireless. The next generation of Audi and Tesla (TSLA) automobiles areconnected to the AT&T (T) network. Wires won't be needed to hack them.

Hackers control car's steering and brakes
Meanwhile, there's a growing potential for car malware. Makers of "infotainment" systems -- dashboards that function like a tablet -- are racing to add fun apps. But if automobiles' internal electronics remain insecure, downloading a malicious app to your car could spell big trouble.That's why auto suppliers are taking initiative.
Harman (HAR) makes Bluetooth audio devices that end up in BMWs, Hyundais, Mercedes-Benzes and others. The company is adding its own layers of security by using software to virtually separate the entertainment system from the car's network. It raises the bar of difficulty for a hacker to use a music app to worm his way into your steering controls.Scachin Lawande leads Harman's infotainment division and justifies its initiative: "The assumption we're making is that it'll take a while for the auto industry to move to a more secure internal network than what we have today."
Continental, one of the world's three major auto parts suppliers, is partnering with IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) to make firewalls that control the information flow betweenthe car's devices. Until it gets security all figured out, the German company is holding back from adding full Internet connectivity features, such as real-time information from the engine that alerts the local car shop ahead of time.
"Without having a good firewall or security in place, I can't go to the auto manufacturer and say, 'Let me have access to information from engine management,'" saidTejas Desai, Continenal's head of interior electronics for North America.
Related story: Half of American adults hacked this year
For their part, car manufacturers are working on these problems too.
Ford (F) hardware has built-in firewalls to prevent malicious tampering, and the company has a team of noble hackers constantly probing for weaknesses.
Toyota (TM) does all that too, plus it...