Mad Max Rolling Thunder

Have you ever been passed by a big rig and thought to yourself how glad you were that somebody was at the helm of that rolling bundle of death? Have you ever seen a roadside littered with billboards advertising legal services for victims of crashes involving big rigs? Maybe seen the ads on television? If so, you probably take little solace in the idea that big rigs are evolving toward autonomous operation only slightly more slowly than cars, and most new cars already come equipped with the required hardware. Put on a hockey mask and crank a chainsaw, cause you got a real massacre on your hands.

Let’s step that game up even further. How about a big rig with an operator, but one who is not in complete control of the vehicle? That’s the hack reported on in a recent Wired article, and one that follows musings on this blog about cars and airplanes being controlled from beyond.

Students at The University of Michigan experimented on a big rig and other equipment to determine the vulnerability of such equipment to hacking. Turns out, due to standardized communications ports, big rigs are easier to hack than cars. Who knew?

Be Driven to Be the Driver

Sure, as the IoT seeps its way into every nook and cranny of our lives, connectivity will almost surely be our salvation and our separation. There just too many parts of this process that don’t, at this point seem sustainable. And yet we must lean into the challenges of greater connectivity and the havoc it will certainly wreak, because there is no stuffing that genie back into the bottle.

Call ICS today and work different magic. Don’t just wish for network and data security. Let us put you securely in the driver’s seat.