USA Today -- Don't send your old clunker of a retro-mobile to the automotive junk yard just yet. It may be the safest machine on the road.

In an article published Tuesday, Wired magazine reports on how it engaged two hackers to see if they could take control of a Jeep Cherokee from the comfort of their living room while writer Andy Greenberg sat nervously at the wheel while the SUV cruised the highway at 70 mph.

Mission accomplished, terrifyingly so. The security experts, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, accessed the Jeep's computer brain through its Uconnect infotainment system and rewrote the firmware to plant their malicious code. Once in, the duo began blasting hip-hop through the stereo system, turned the AC to maximum and, ultimately, killed the transmission and brakes.

Greenberg was unharmed in the demonstration, which took place on a highway in St. Louis, but eventually wound up stranded in a ditch. But the experiment highlights a concern that often isn't addressed head-on in the growing excitement over the prospect of roads dominated by either autonomous or heavily driver-assisted vehicles.

If the frequent attacks on myriad retail and financial institutions tell us anything, it's that there isn't a digitally connected network that is completely safe from hackers. And while it's one thing to have to change credit cards due to a breach, it's another to be trapped in a speeding hunk of metal when the crippling intrusion happens.

Says Miller, a security researcher for Twitter and a former National Security Agency hacker: "If consumers don't realize this is an issue, they should, and they should start complaining to carmakers. This might be the kind of software bug most likely to kill someone."

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/07/21/hack-connected-car-raises-alarm-over-driver-safety/30462317/

Detroit News -- Two senators are pressing automakers to answer questions about cybersecurity issues in the wake of the industry’s first ever recalls for hacking risks.

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent expanded questions to 18 automakers asking for an update to the information on each “company’s protections against the threat of cyberattacks or unwarranted invasions of privacy related to the integration of electronic systems into and within automobiles.”

They also want automakers to disclose “any changes to their vehicle fleet or characteristics, policies, practices and experiences that may have occurred since the company first responded to Senator Markey’s original letter” in 2013.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufactuers — the trade group representing Detroit's Big Three automakers, Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and others --said the industry is responding.

"Advanced computing and connectivity are critical components of vehicle safety systems, and they are also critical to innovative technologies that provide societal benefits such as reduced traffic congestion and decreased environmental footprints. The auto industry is working to keep pace with the dynamic nature of cyber threats by incorporating security by design, developing internal expertise, and cultivating procedural and operational partnerships with organizations specializing in cyber defense,"Alliance spokesman wade Newton said. "By year's end the industry expects to establish an Auto industry Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) facilitating the exchange of important threat information -- and countermeasures -- in real time."

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/09/16/senators-want-answers-auto-cyberhacking/32497293/

Detroit News -- Two senators are pressing automakers to answer questions about cybersecurity issues in the wake of the industry’s first ever recalls for hacking risks.

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent expanded questions to 18 automakers asking for an update to the information on each “company’s protections against the threat of cyberattacks or unwarranted invasions of privacy related to the integration of electronic systems into and within automobiles.”

They also want automakers to disclose “any changes to their vehicle fleet or characteristics, policies, practices and experiences that may have occurred since the company first responded to Senator Markey’s original letter” in 2013.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufactuers — the trade group representing Detroit's Big Three automakers, Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and others --said the industry is responding.

"Advanced computing and connectivity are critical components of vehicle safety systems, and they are also critical to innovative technologies that provide societal benefits such as reduced traffic congestion and decreased environmental footprints. The auto industry is working to keep pace with the dynamic nature of cyber threats by incorporating security by design, developing internal expertise, and cultivating procedural and operational partnerships with organizations specializing in cyber defense,"Alliance spokesman wade Newton said. "By year's end the industry expects to establish an Auto industry Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) facilitating the exchange of important threat information -- and countermeasures -- in real time."

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/2015/09/16/senators-want-answers-auto-cyberhacking/32497293/