A Cloud-Based Firewall to Stop Car-Data Hackers

Using a cloud-based computing setup, the third largest maker of luxury vehicles unveiled a new set of protections from hackers in the face of driverless travel.

1 minute read

September 19, 2014, 7:00 AM PDT

By Maayan Dembo @DJ_Mayjahn


A recent piece on Bloomberg News by Dorothee Tschampa reports how Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, announced the new technology protecting car-data at a conference in their hometown of Stuttgart, Germany earlier this week.

According to Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, the head of legal affairs at Daimler AG, "[e]lements of the technology will include enabling people in a vehicle to control how much of their data is available to the outside world while they’re on the road." Drivers will also be able to erase information automatically upon finishing any give trip.

Indeed, Tschampa also cites a recent study by Boston-based Lux Research within her piece. The group estimated the industry surrounding self-driving cars will value $87 billion by 2030, with the majority of money focused on developing software. This has "prompted automakers and insurers to look at how to prevent hackers from gaining access to information or even hijacking vehicles by remote control."

Thursday, September 18, 2014 in Bloomberg News

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