IDG News Service: Tire pressure monitor systems could reveal driver location
Thursday, August 12th, 2010IDG News Service reports that researchers from Rutgers University and University of South Carolina have found that radio frequency identification (RFID) systems that transmit data between new cars’ electronic control units and their tires can be forged or intercepted, which could identify the location of the car and driver. (RFID systems transmit data wirelessly from a chip or tag to a reader.) The report (pdf), “Security and Privacy Vulnerabilities of In-Car Wireless Networks: A Tire Pressure Monitoring System Case Study,” was released in February but will be presented at this week’s Usenix Security Symposium in Washington, D.C.
IDG interviews Wenyuan Xu, a computer science assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, who was a co-lead on the study.
The system that the researchers tested monitors the air pressure of each tire on an automobile. The U.S. has required such systems in new automobiles since 2008, thanks to legislation passed after controversy erupted over possible defective Firestone tires in 2000. The European Union will require new automobiles to have similar monitoring systems in place by 2012.
As computerized systems are being increasingly used in automobiles, critics such as Xu are asking what safeguards system makers are putting in place to prevent vulnerabilities in such systems, knowing that bugs and security holes invariably sneak into all software. [...] Read more »

