Former Tesla Intern Releases $60 Open Source Car Hacking Kit

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/03/25/hack-a-car-for-60-dollars/ A former Tesla Motors Inc

intern has released a $60 open source car hacking kit, according to a Forbes report by Thomas Fox-Brewster. Eric Evenchick, the former intern, was expected to announce the CANard tool at the BlackHat Asia conference https://www.blackhat.com/asia-15/briefings.html According to the report, Evenchick's code would "make it cheaper and easier than ever before" for users to connect to the computers in cars, make tweaks to settings and find "worrisome security vulnerabilities that more malicious hackers could exploit." With the $59.95 CANtact interface (below), a user can connect to a car's ODB2 port with a Windows, Linux or Mac computer. Using the Python programming language, the operator can then access the vehicle's Controller Area Network (CAN) and begin probing the settings and code.

Source: Forbes "I want to make this easy. Python developers can get the code in one line…and start working with it. It's also built as a library rather than just a collection of scripts. The plan is to build more functionality out around it, and contribute that back into an open source tool," Evenchick told Forbes. "Making diagnostics available for cheap means that we can not only audit the security of these systems, but also use them for their intended purpose: fixing cars," Evenchick added. "One of the big problems is access to vehicles. Ford, let's say, won't let anyone with security skills in to hack it."