Tag: security threat

Connected cars pose security threat

googlecarThe UK’s Automobile Association (AA) has warned that cars connected to the internet are vulnerable to hackers.

Different systems installed in the latest automobiles offer clear opportunities for abuse, according to the head of the AA, Edmund King.

He told Electronics Weekly that as more cars get connected to the internet the more vulnerable they’ll be to hack attacks.

Most car manufacturers have already installed systems using IP addresses and the number of those are going to increase over time.

King thinks that terrorists could threaten transportation systems, and interfere with acceleration and braking systems, with crooks demanding money from owners to release their cars.

He also thinks hackers could breach controller area networks, switch on internal microphones and cameras and track peoples’ movements.

King told EW that there are so many sensors installed in cars these days that vehicles are becoming vulnerable to security breaches.

Copy machines pose unlikely security threat

copycatEvery office has them and although paperless offices are the new black, copy machines will probably be around for years to come. However, thousands of old copies stored on hard drives will also stick around.

Most copy machines built in the last decade have a hard drive and can store thousands of documents scanned, copied or emailed using the machine. Some hard drives are big enough to store 60,000 to 100,000 pages of data, so these benevolent dinosaurs are in fact massive security threats lurking in the corner, next to the water cooler.