Connected cars offer a great deal of promise, not least in easing congestion and making traffic flow better.  A recent study from the Georgia Institute of Technology highlights the very real security risks presented by connected vehicle technology however.

The researchers have attempted to simulate just how easy it would be for hackers to wreak havoc on urban transport systems, simply by taking control of vehicles and leaving them stranded in various places around the city.

“With cars, one of the worrying things is that currently there is effectively one central computing system, and a lot runs through it. You don’t necessarily have separate systems to run your car and run your satellite radio. If you can get into one, you may be able to get into the other,” the researchers explain.

Gridlock

The researchers developed a simulation of traffic in Manhatten, and tested the impact of hackers gaining control of a number of vehicles.  They found that randomly stalling around 20% of the vehicles in rush hour traffic would cause total gridlock, with it proving impossible to move more than a few blocks.  If just 10% of cars were hacked, the congestion would be such that emergency vehicles would struggle to cut through the traffic.

The figures underline the relatively low number of vehicles that would have to be compromised for traffic systems to fail.  What’s more, they argue that numbers in other cities could be even lower than in New York.

“Manhattan has a nice grid, and that makes traffic more efficient. Looking at cities without large grids like Atlanta, Boston, or Los Angeles, and we think hackers could do worse harm because a grid makes you more robust with redundancies to get to the same places down many different routes,” they explain.

Suffice to say, if traffic is already disrupted by road works or some other factor, then that could worsen the situation and mean fewer cars would need to be compromised for damage to occur.

While the researchers are at pains to point out that they are not passing comment on the security risks posed by connected vehicles, but are instead merely aiming to highlight the potential damage that could be caused to traffic flow by a relatively small number of hacks.