Car Hackers

Would the term "car hackers" come to mind if your car would not start.

What if you were actually driving down the road and suddenly your streering wheel turned, your brakes didn't

work or your engine simply shut down.

Would the term "car hackers" come to mind in that situation.

For most of us the answer is probably not.

But that may be changing quickly.

In the early 1990's the World Wide Web began

to connect millions of us to the new and

thrilling online universe.

It was not until a few years later that we began to hear warnings about the dangers of cyber attacks and viruses

and the problems they could cause.

Well now those dangers not only lurk on our computers sitting on our desks, but also within the computers installed

into our vehicles.

Car Hackers Lurk

These hackers, using just the right series of computer commands, can now hack into vehicles anywhere, at any

time, whether they are parked of driving down the freeway at 60 MPH.

We now live a world that many have come to call the "Internet of Things," meaning that we are all connected and

wired into a sometimes lawless, borderless, and in many cases, an insecure online world.

And just how big is this world? In 2010 it was estimated that they were roughly 2 billion devices connected in some form

to the Internet.

By 2020 that number is expected to grow to an

estimated 25 billion.

This speed of growth in size, coupled with the inherent insecurity of the Internet itself, makes it almost impossible for effective security systems and measures to keep pace.

This means that currently existing vulnerabilities are simply built into the constantly expanding connected world we live

in.

When it comes to the cars we drive, even if a vehicle could be designed that was safe from car hackers and their abilities as they exist today, that vehicle would not be available for sale in a dealership showroom until 2018.

In essence, it would already be three years behind the ever growing abilities of these hackers.

Can We Keep Up With Car Hackers

The car industry and governmental agencies alike are moving as fast as possible to address this issue, but each admits that they are playing catch up and truth be told,

don't ever really know how far they are behind in the first place.

I won a classic car that was built in 1970.

Its mechanical design is simple compared to that of today's vehicles.

It also does not have a computer built into it.

It is not only cool as can be, it is also impervious to anything that car hackers can attempt to throw at it.