i have just had word from an internet friend in america, he says that people are putting viruses onto computers in garages, so that when you plug the engine diagnostic into the computer, the virus is put onto the diagnostic machine, then it can travel from the diagnostic system to the cars engine computer when the owner of the car has a service etc.
p.s. he works for general motors, and apparently GM are getting worried about this new kind of virus.
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Thank you for spreading that wonderful piece of misinformation. You don't have the best record on accuracy do you Chris.
I not saying this is impossible but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
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Christipher....
You are a naughty lad and dad should get the stair rod out again.
Or this friend of yours is on a diet of funny mushrooms.
It was a good try anyway........
Alvin
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I guess that the above mentioned scenario maybe possible but seeing as though vehicle engine management systems run on completely different operating platforms to PC's the risk is not that real.....until B*W bring out some overcomplicated car (see SB's thread!) Then, we could be in for some real fun!
- viruses are not funny.
David
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the virus has two parts, the first part is a carrier and the second part is the virus, the first part cant go onto the cars computer, but the second part CAN.
so the first part can travel on PC's, but the second part cant travel on PC's.
the first part cant travel on the car management system, but the second part CAN travel on car management systems, so it DOES work as a virus.
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LAC
This is covered in the new specification MOT test, of which you will be aware. To permanantly cure you weld a patch over the computer - a temporary repair can be effected with a load of old flannel.
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ha ha, very funny. but my mate in america has just put the details of this 'car virus' onto yahoo.com so just search for it.
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Before we all get too scared about viral infections a word about how viruses work. Computer viruses are not magic, even though they may sometimes seem that way. They depend on mechanisms that are already built into the operating system they are targeting. All they do is get the target machine to, in effect, infect itself.
Now it wouldn't be too hard to write a virus that scrambled all the rewritable components on your cars ECU but as there are a number of different designs out there the virus would probably have to be targeted at a particular car and probably through a particular management interface. (I guess Fords will be the first to be targeted then).
A virus that could truely replicate itself to the ECU of a car would have to find some way of installing itself and arranging things so that the cars ECU was to run it. At the moment the sort of changes that can be made to a car are largely restricted to parameter changes so all a virus could do is scramble these parameters.
The only articles I have seen on this are based on what might happen in the future as cars get more inteligent and as their systems become more accesible. GM would be right to be concerned about this because they will be thinking some 10 to 15 years into the future. You do not need to worry about this now as your Lada just is not infectable. Neither is my Audi, David's Citroen or even Johns BMW. The systems in these cars should not support a virus. Cars like the new BMW 7-series may have a problems as I bet the systems on these cars contain a awful lot of upgradable program code. I won't however have access to a car with this kind of automation for at least another 10 years.
BTW. One of the original targets for Microsofts Windows CE was the car dashboard. I think Citroen offered a Zantia with CE embedded into the stereo for a while.
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so in about ten years we all have to worry (not me, because i will have an old banger, maybe i will have a ford focus because in ten years time these will be cheap cars)
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