Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks—With Me Behind The Wheel (Video)
With Me Behind The Wheel (Video) — Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop-or even slow down-produces a unique feeling of anxiety. In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV's chassis.
Context & Ripple Effects
The demonstration builds on an uncomfortable precedent: back in March 2010, a hacker showed he could disable more than 100 cars remotely, proving that vehicle systems were reachable over networks years before most buyers thought of their car as a computer.
What makes this Forbes ride-along different is the stakes on camera — researchers cutting the brakes on a moving Ford Escape with a journalist behind the wheel — landing just as Ford has been racing to wire its fleet up, from the free Sync Destinations app for sending directions from smartphones to a confirmed research project with Google using its Prediction API to analyze driving data. Every added connection point is convenience on one side and attack surface on the other.
First-order effects
- Ford now faces direct security scrutiny of the Escape's electronic control systems, with a public video showing brakes disabled mid-drive rather than a lab-bound proof of concept.
- Security researchers gain a high-profile template for physically demonstrable car hacks, raising the bar beyond the 2010 remote-disable incident.
Second-order effects
- Every automaker shipping connected features — smartphone apps, telematics, data partnerships like Ford's with Google — must now treat those interfaces as safety-critical attack surface, not just infotainment plumbing.
- Suppliers of in-car connectivity and telematics components face pressure to build in isolation and authentication controls as automakers reassess what gets networked.
Third-order effects
- If researchers keep converting network access into physical control, vehicle software security is pushed from an afterthought toward a regulatory domain — the same way crash safety became standardized once failures were publicly visible.
- The pattern points toward an auto industry where security credentials become part of how connectivity features are marketed and audited, not just shipped.
The trend: As cars absorb smartphones, cloud services, and mesh-networking ambitions, vehicle software is becoming an attack surface whose failures are measured in braking distance rather than downtime.