Today it鈥檚 鈥渞elatively easy to remotely take over and reprogram鈥� self-driving cars and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), DARPA officials say. It鈥檚 easy to hack into the new cars people actually drive, too. Roughly half of the cars stolen in London last year, for example 鈥� that鈥檚 42,000 鈥� were heisted without the use of physical force.
Scientists working on High-Assurance Cyber Military Systems, or HACMS (the Pentagon pronounces it 鈥渉ack鈥檈ms鈥�), have the lofty goal of rendering remote cyber-attacks ineffective.
As smart cars become more complex, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a lot more opportunity to attack them,鈥� notes Mike Franusich, a principal engineer on the program. The key, DARPA officials say, is building IT systems that can鈥檛 be hacked in the first place.
