Around the Net
Why Car Hacking Is Nearly Impossible
- Scientific American, Thursday, October 22, 2015 1:06 PM
As scare-tactic journalism goes, it would be hard to beat this past summer's article about hackers taking remote control of a Wired magazine writer's car. “I was driving 70 mph on the edge of downtown St. Louis,” he wrote. “As the two hackers remotely toyed with the air-conditioning, radio, and windshield wipers, I mentally congratulated myself on my courage under pressure. That's when they cut the transmission.” Scary! Hackers can take over our cars! Our lives are at risk! No, they're not. Stories such as these are catnip to mainstream media and the technophobic public. Unfortunately, they leave out or underplay a detail or two that would take most of the air out of the drama: these aren't just any cars.
Journalists need their click-bait. If it weren't for Nielsen rating periods, we'd never know if our local drinking water was safe. Maybe we need a separate key on the keyboard that types "Critics warn that"