The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that Honda and Acura car models can now be manipulated by hackers, resulting to the vehicles being stolen without physically touching them, IgbereTV reports
NCC stated that this was due to an ongoing cyber-vulnerability with vehicles, which its Cybersecurity unit, Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), warned about in a circular to the telecoms regulator.
The vulnerability allows hackers to wirelessly unlock and start a vehicle engine due to their remote keys which allows radio frequency on short range devices. The hackers drive the cars away just by being nearby – and not necessarily in physical contact with the car or having its remote key.
This information was contained in a statement released by NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Ikechukwu Adinde, on Sunday May 15.
Explaining the situation, NCC said, “the vulnerability is a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack or, more specifically, a replay attack in which an attacker intercepts the RF signals normally sent from a remote key fob to the car, manipulates these signals, and re-sends them later to unlock the car at will.
“With this latest type of cyber-attack, it is also possible to manipulate the captured commands and re-transmit them to achieve a different outcome altogether. “Multiple researchers disclosed a vulnerability, which is said to be used by a nearby attacker to unlock some Honda and Acura car models and start their engines wirelessly.
“The attack consists of a threat actor capturing the radio frequency (RF) signals sent from your key fob to the car and resending these signals to take control of your car’s remote keyless entry system,” NCC said the advisory from its Cybersecurity team opined
