[ISN] Ford Motor Rolls Out New Security Features To Prevent Car-Hacking

[InfoSec News]

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability_management/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223200163

By Kelly Jackson Higgins
DarkReading
March 08, 2010 

Automobile giant Ford Motor this year will debut vehicles with built-in 
WiFi -- along with enhanced security features to prevent data breaches 
via its new cars.

Ford has offered the so-called Sync technology service it co-developed 
with Microsoft in most of its Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles since 
2008. The technology lets drivers run their Bluetooth-enabled mobile 
phones and digital media players via their vehicles and use voice 
commands to operate them, for instance.

The automaker announced today that the second generation of its Sync 
technology -- due out later this year and to include a full Windows CE 
operating system with a new driver interface called MyFordTouch -- will 
come with a built-in browser and secured WiFi access. It will first 
debut in the 2011 Ford Edge and 2011 MKX Lincoln, and later, in the 2010 
Ford Focus.

"We really began to focus on the security side when we began launching 
Sync, and it was [originally] for working with phones and media 
players," says Jim Buczkowski, director of Ford electronics and 
electrical systems engineering. "Now we're extending that system 
connectivity to include WiFi as another data path for customers in their 
vehicles ... and we're extending that security model for protecting 
WiFi."

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