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Thousands of cars are at risk of electronic hacking, according to computer scientists whose research was suppressed for two years by a court injunction for fear it would help thieves steal vehicles to order. It highlights a weakness in the Megamos Crypto system, a piece of technology used by big manufacturers such as Audi, Fiat, Honda, Volvo and Volkswagen. It is supposed to prevent a car engine being started without the presence of a keyfob containing the correct radio frequency identification chip. However, researchers at Birmingham University and Radbound University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, were able to intercept signals sent between the chip and the car. Listening in twice allowed them to use a process of reverse engineering – using a commercially available computer programmer - to identify the secret codes used to start the car. "This is a serious flaw and it's not very easy to quickly correct," Tim Watson, Director of Cyber Security at the University of Warwick, told Bloomberg. "It isn't a theoretical weakness, it's an actual one and it doesn't cost theoretical dollars to fix, it costs actual dollars."
