Hackers crash car using remote control

SECURITY experts issued a warning to half a million car owners last night after hackers were able to take remote control of a vehicle from ten miles away.

They took over the Jeep Cherokee’s onboard computer via its wireless internet connection and crashed it into a ditch.

The two hackers, security experts using a laptop and mobile phone, cut the engine and applied the brakes – sending the Jeep, being driven by a journalist, into a ditch.

The breach was staged in the US city of St Louis by Charlie Miller and Chris Val- asek. They claim more than 470,000 cars made by the Jeep’s manufacturer Fiat Chrysler – including many in the UK – could be at risk.

Technology writer Andy Greenberg described on Wired.com how the Jeep was hacked. As the hackers traced his route, the radio began playing, the wipers and spray turned on, blurring the windscreen, and a picture of the two hackers appeared on the digital display. Greenberg wrote: ‘The most disturbing manoeuvre came when they cut the Jeep’s brakes.’

The hack was possible because of Uconnect, the internet- connected computer feature installed in Fiat Chrysler cars since 2013. Miller and Valasek said all a hacker has to know to break into the controls is the car’s IP address. Experts warned that the method could be adapted to work on any Uconnect unit.

Fiat Chrysler said the hackers were wrong to disclose information that would help ‘unlawful’ access to vehicle systems.