Computer scientists work to prevent hackers from remotely controlling cars
One of these has now been closed by computer scientists at the Center for IT Security and Privacy (CISPA) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI)—with the help of software that manufacturers can retrofit into any car. In order to remotely brake a car traveling at more than 100 kilometer per hour, it was enough for the American security researcher Stephen Checkoway to use the music player software installed in the car together with a smartphone connected to it. "If the software were not connected to the internal network, the so-called CAN bus, of that mid-range sedan, then Checkoway would have had to work harder," explains Stefan Nuernberger, who leads the Smart Systems Lab at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).