Toyota hires cybersecurity firm to hack own infotainment system

MANILA: If you plan on hacking a Toyota or Lexus, it's going to be a tougher proposition than it looks after the Japanese automaker fixes  vulnerabilities exposed by a commissioned study.

As Toyota and its luxury arm Lexus continues to push their study of connected vehicles, they have made it a top priority to have the highest level of security against online attacks. As a purely precautionary measure, the services of cybersecurity firm Tencent Keen Security Lab were commissioned to find weaknesses in the system of new infotainment system used by various Toyota and Lexus models.

The result of a brief disclosure paper has revealed that the new infotainment is be vulnerable to malicious attacks via Bluetooth, which can cause it to “perform some unexpected physical actions.” The findings did state categorically that the exploit process will not give hackers steering, braking, or throttle control.

Manipulating these security loopholes requires “specific knowledge and expertise of the multimedia system software, a special tool, and maintaining close proximity to a vehicle for an extended period during any attempt to compromise the multimedia system.”

Because of that reason, Toyota believes that the chance of hacking this infotainment system in the manner developed by Keen Lab is "highly improbable."

Measures to address this vulnerability are now being developed and shall be available via software update very soon.