About a year ago, two security experts named Sam Curry and Shubham Shah found some serious security issues in a Subaru website that was used to manage certain features of their cars. These issues were so significant that they could allow someone to take control of a car remotely and track where the driver was at any given time, as reported by Wired.
After the researchers informed Subaru about these problems, the company took action and fixed the vulnerabilities. However, Curry and Shah believe that simply patching these holes in security is not enough; it’s only a temporary fix for a much larger problem related to car security in general.
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In their investigation, the researchers managed to hack into a test vehicle through a web portal intended for Subaru employees. This access gave them the ability to do things like start the car from a distance and see its location in real-time. They could also look back at a whole year’s worth of location data, which raises some serious privacy concerns. Curry pointed out that there are many situations where someone could misuse this information. For example, if someone wanted to track another person’s movements for malicious reasons—like spying on a partner or targeting someone based on their political beliefs—they could easily do so.
The researchers emphasized that as long as employees of car companies have access to sensitive information, that data remains at risk of being hacked in new and evolving ways.
Moreover, they highlighted that these security vulnerabilities are not just limited to Subaru. Similar problems exist across the automotive industry, affecting other brands like Acura, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, and Toyota. This suggests that many cars with connected technology could be at risk, making it a widespread issue that needs to be addressed more comprehensively.
