In January 2022, 19-year-old David Colombo from Dinkelsbühl, Germany, announced via Twitter that he had been able to hack at least 25 Tesla vehicles in 13 countries and partially take them over.
“So, I now have full remote control of over 25 Teslas in 13 countries and there seems to be no way to find the owners and report it to them,” he tweeted.
Luckily, Colombo’s intentions were good. As the founder of cyber-security firm Colombo Technology, he used his actions simply to demonstrate the security flaw of the third-party software that Tesla was using, and to warn automakers the world over about the danger of malicious attacks.
Colombo isn’t alone in his mission. Cyber-security firm McAfee demonstrated how it could trick autonomous vehicles (AVs) into speeding over 50mph above the speed limit. And Ubiquitous System Security Lab, along with a series of partners, demonstrated how ‘poltergeist’ attacks – where attacks are made against the camera-based computer...