Nissan investigates claims its Infiniti car is 'most hackable'

Miller and Valasek hackable car report is causing a stir

Nissan's Infiniti security teams are reviewing a report that names the Infiniti Q50 model as the most susceptible vehicle to remote hacking on the market.

Nissan's Infiniti Q50, as well as certain car models by Chrysler and General Motors, were highlighted as potential security risks in the study by security experts Charlie Miller, former NSA employee and noted for exposing vulnerabilities in OS X and Safari at annual Pwn2Own contests, and Chris Valasek, director of vehicle security research at IOActive.

The report found that theoretically, the Infiniti Q50 model could be controlled remotely as its bluetooth, telematics and on-board phone applications all run on the same network as the engine and braking systems, the pair said in an interview with tech site Dark Reading.

The security experts were due to reveal the report in full at the Las Vegas Black Hat conference on Wednesday, but failed to reveal any more details. It is believed that the report will be published this year.

However, the affected car manufacturers have received and are currently reviewing the report.

Nissan-owned Infiniti said: "Infiniti engineers and security teams are currently reviewing the findings of this study, however, there is no indication that our Q50 sports sedan was actually exploited by the authors.

"As the potential for 'hacking' into the electronic systems of all automobiles may grow, we will continue to integrate security features into our vehicles to help protect against cyber-attacks."

Bart Jacobs, professor of Computer Security at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, recently expressed concern that the automotive industry has a lot to learn about software patching throughout the supply chain before connected cars reach critical mass.

The Infiniti Q50 model is currently sold in the US.

Tags nissannsaIOActiveInfiniti

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