Are you a driver? Does your car do too much mobile? from blog The Technology blog and podcast

Are you a driver? Does your car do too much mobile?

I want to have the article title be the form of a question for those who may peruse this blog post and come across it. The question is: Are you a driver? Does your car do too much mobile?

Security Now! some episodes back and Krebs On Security recently penned an article about a gentleman who had rented a car from Ford. The companion application can allow you, the driver, to start the engine, look at where the car is, and play music through your phone. These are just a few things that it can do, and I’m sure that I’m missing things.

Can you imagine the thought that once you turn in the car as a rental, that you can still have access to starting the engine, tracking its location, and other activities that the app may allow you to have access to? Mind you, the car and you are thousands of miles away, and you can still see where this thing is and control it.

The gentleman in question reached out to Ford Motor company and braught this serious issue to them with no response. The article recently penned is entitled: When Your Used Car is a Little Too ‘Mobile’ and was posted to Krebs on the 5th of February.

Security Now! covered this in January in one news segment, and I was shocked that Ford didn’t even acknowledge the issue, let alone revoke it once the car came back to a dealer for rerental.

Many modern vehicles let owners use the Internet or a mobile device to control the car’s locks, track location and performance data, and start the engine.
But who exactly owns that control is not always clear when these smart cars are sold or leased anew. Here’s the story of one former electric vehicle owner
who discovered he could still gain remote, online access to his old automobile years after his lease ended.
Mathew Marulla began leasing a Ford Focus electric vehicle in 2013, but turned the car back in to Ford at the end of his lease in 2016. So Marulla was
surprised when he recently received an email from Ford.com stating that the clock in his car was set incorrectly.

Mind you, the gentleman didn’t even have the car anymore, and I’m sure everyone who linked their app to this car got the same email message. Can you imagine the horrific things an actor can do like shut off the engine in the middle of a highway with a family in the car?

The gentleman in question even said he could start the engine using the app from thousands of miles away. How is this even possible?

If you drive, I urge you to read this article from Krebs, because it goes in to detail. Also, search the Security Now episode that this is talked about, cause it does have some interesting talking points.

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Informazioni sull'articolo

Are you a driver? Does your car do too much mobile? was released on February 8, 2020 at 2:00 pm by tech in article commentary.
Last modified: February 8, 2020.

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