OnStar Meet OwnStar: The Hacking Device That Could Steal Your Corvette
Over the last few weeks, auto industry news has been dominated by the ability of hackers to get into Jeeps through the Uconnect system. It’s not only a major breach of security for the company, but a problem that’s been on the verge of catastrophe for a long time now. With the increased use of computers within cars and the cars’ systems, everyone in the tech industry and anyone with any semblance of hacking knowledge has been warning that this could happen. Now, it seems it has and it looks as if FCA products aren’t the only ones at risk.
According to the man in the following video, thanks to a few simple circuit boards (probably not that simple), vehicles with OnStar are vulnerable to attack from a device called OwnStar. Essentially, it intercepts the communications between the OnStar phone app and a car. A hacker is then able to acquire credentials from a mobile device and use them to set up his own OnStar app on his personal phone and get into the vehicle, start it, and potentially drive off.
While this isn’t the full-on hack with which FCA is dealing, it shows just how vulnerable every auto manufacturer is to these incursions. We live in a world in which computers control everything, including our cars. This has been coming for a while. The only way to solve it is by pressuring the automakers to find ways to make the cars’ computers more secure. Otherwise, that brand new OnStar-equipped Corvette Z06 you just bought could very easily be stolen in a matter of seconds.