Court order BANS publication of VW's Luxury car security codes

A scientist at Birmingham University, Flavia Garcia, has been banned from publishing details of VW Group’s Megamos Crypto system that protects its cars.

Bentley is just one of VW’s marques whose security has been compromised

There have been plenty of stories around in recent years of car makers’ security systems being easily hacked by spotty boys with a laptop, and now a scientist at Birmingham University has cracked VW’s Megamos Crypto system that protects cars like Bentley and Porsche.

Flavia Garcia has cracked the code that transmits between VW’s luxury cars – like Bentleys and Porsches – and the key fob, which potentially fatally compromises VW’s security.

Garcia had planned to publish his paper on the fatal flaws in the Megamos Crypto system at the Usenix Security Symposium in Washington next month, but a judge has put the kybosh on that.

VW had asked Garcia to publish his paper – Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobiliser – without including the codes, but Garcia declined to comply with the request.

So VW went to the High Court to ask for an interim injunction to stop Garcia spilling the beans, which has been granted by Mr Justice Birss who said that although he reconsigned the importance of academics having the right to publish, doing so in this case would facilitate car crime.

In truth, the detail of how to do this can already be found on the Internet, but it highlights just how tough it is for car makers reliance on computer technology to escape the attention of those who wish to gain from accessing its secrets.

This may stop wider publication of the secrets to VW’s Megamos Crypto, but the bigger problem is how to make car technology safe from hackers.

Can it even be done?