Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc Bao Smith, B.Sc Photography Ross Tester Reader Services Ann Morris Advertising Enquiries Glyn Smith Phone (02) 9939 3295 Mobile 0431 792 293 glyn<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Dave Thompson David Maddison B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Ian Batty Cartoonist Brendan Akhurst SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates: $105.00 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see our website or the subscriptions page in this issue. Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9939 3295. E-mail: silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au Printing and Distribution: Derby Street, Silverwater, NSW 2148. ISSN 1030-2662 Recommended & maximum price only. 2 Silicon Chip Editorial Viewpoint Autonomous vehicles will need to be very secure Billions of dollars are currently being spent in an attempt to create passenger vehicles which can drive themselves on public roads. Some of these are already being trialled in Australia and in other countries. Furthermore, a number of recent articles have suggested that these autonomous vehicles will need to be networked in order to operate efficiently. No doubt many of them will be in communication with their manufacturers or operators via mobile phone networks, in the same way that the Nissan Leaf and Tesla vehicles “phone home” for software updates, battery monitoring and so on. But this creates a huge problem if the security isn’t 100% foolproof. Hackers could easily steal your car by simply telling it to drive itself away. Worse, people could be kidnapped by being locked in their moving vehicles while they are redirected to a new destination or even held ransom with the threat of being driven off a cliff! And let’s not even think about the terrorism implications of any security holes in autonomous vehicles, especially if they become known when there is already a large fleet of vehicles on the roads. You may think this is only a theoretical risk but security researchers have already demonstrated remotely taking control of a vehicle and it wasn’t even an autonomous one. It was just an ordinary Jeep with a flaw in the security of its entertainment system. For details, see: www.wired.com/2015/07/hackersremotely-kill-jeep-highway Almost unbelievably, this was connected with the vehicle control systems in such a way that a hacker with access to the entertainment system could cause the vehicle to crash. Nor was this an isolated incident; commercial aircraft have been found to have large security flaws, allowing passengers to gain access to critical flight computers through their movie screens! Unbelievable! See: www.wired. com/2015/05/feds-say-banned-researcher-commandeered-plane Pretty much every day now, we hear about the latest security flaw. Recently, a huge problem with WiFi encryption was discovered, even though we’re now on the third or fourth different scheme as each one attempts to provide better security. More recently, it was discovered that a macOS update allowed anyone with access to a computer to get administrator access with just a few mouse clicks. Frustratingly, many of these security flaws turn out to be dumb mistakes, of the kind that an experienced engineer or programmer should not make. Who thinks it’s a good idea (or even necessary) for the entertainment system on an aircraft to share any commonality with the avionics? Why do we still have security software and operating systems with rookie errors like buffer overflows? This will all have to be well and truly addressed before we can trust autonomous vehicles with our lives. The software will also need to be able to cope gracefully with GPS jamming/spoofing, infrastructure failures (network outages, power outages), road marking vandalism and other non-hacking activities which could deliberately or accidentally cause a self-driving vehicle to become confused or lost. While I’ve no doubt working on one of these projects would be exciting, it must also be daunting, knowing all the challenges which must be overcome for the technology to come to fruition. They must be overcome, otherwise no one will be safe from rogue vehicles which could even deliberately smash into your home or chase you along the foot path. Are you worried? You should be. Nicholas Vinen Celebrating 30 Years siliconchip.com.au