General Motors hired two security researchers that hacked into a Jeep Cherokee over the internet in 2014, cutting its transmission and disabling the brakes in an experiment that still reverberates in the automotive industry.

Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller were both hired by Cruise Automation, the autonomous driving unit that GM formed in 2016. Previously, Valasek worked on Uber’s self-driving cars and Miller was a security researcher at Chinese ride-sharing firm Didi Chuxing. The hires were confirmed by Cruise’s chief executive Kyle Vogt on Twitter last week

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) (FCHA.MI) said on Friday it would recall more than 1.25 million pickup trucks worldwide to address a software error linked to reports of one crash death and two injuries.

The erroneous code could temporarily disable the side air bag and deployment seat of belt pretensioners – which reduce seat belt slack during impacts – during a vehicle rollover spurred by a significant underbody impact, such as striking onroad debris or driving off-road, the Italian-American automaker said.

The company will reprogram computer modules in the affected vehicles to address this error.

[Charlie Miller] and [Chris Valasek] Have just released all their research including (but not limited to) how they hacked a Jeep Cherokee after the newest firmware updates which were rolled out in response to their Hacking of a Cherokee in 2015.

FCA, the Corp that owns Jeep had to recall 1.5 million Cherokee’s to deal with the 2015 hack, issuing them all a patch. However the patch wasn’t all that great it actually gave [Charlie] and [Chris] even more control of the car than they had in the first place once exploited. The papers they have released are a goldmine for anyone interesting in hacking or even just messing around with cars via the CAN bus.

We anticipate seeing an increasing number of security related releases and buzz as summer approaches. It is, after all, Network Security Theatre season.

http://illmatics.com/carhacking.html

Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway
http://www.epanorama.net/newepa/2015/07/23/hackers-remotely-kill-a-jeep-on-the-highway/