HOW DO YOU FAKE A TRAFFIC ACCIDENT?

Was Michael Hastings the first person to be killed by a car that had been hacked? The American investigative journalist died in the early hours of June 18, 2013, after his car had hurtled into a tree at an extremely high rate of speed for no apparent reason (see photo, above). “The publicly available information fits with the scenario of a cyber-car-attack. The problem is, this cannot be proven,” says Richard Clarke, a longtime security coordinator for the U.S. government and special advisor on cybersecurity. Since July 2015 it has been clear: A “targeted killing,” as the intelligence agencies call such a crime, is a real possibility: Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, two experts in automotive security, were able to hack into a car via the Internet and control it remotely. That’s because modern vehicles are connected to the Web like rolling computers— to carry out functions such as accessing traffic information or entertainment programs. From there, hackers can interact with almost every electronic component. For the test car’s driver, tech journalist Andy Greenberg, the experimental hijacking was a terrifying ordeal: “I pleaded with them to return power to the vehicle…”