Texas A&M Develops System To Prevent Hacking Of Vehicles

The increased use of smart grids and automated transportation with the internet has led to vulnerabilities, Kumar said. To be adopted by society, autonomous vehicles must be protected against malicious attacks on sensors, he added.

Researchers at the Cyberphysical Systems Laboratory at Texas A&M University have developed a prototype for an intelligent transportation system to prevent hacking of autonomous vehicles in an effort to avoid collisions caused by malicious cyberattacks.

Led by Dr. P.R. Kymar of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering along with two graduate students, the researchers added a random private signal, a “watermark,” to the actuators to alert the server that controls the vehicle if the sensors have been corrupted or hacked to provide false information that could cause a collision.

That watermark signal then would automatically cause the vehicle system to shut down if provided with false information such as a wrong location and reduce accidents.

The increased use of smart grids and automated transportation with the internet has led to vulnerabilities, Kumar said.

To be adopted by society, autonomous vehicles must be protected against malicious attacks on sensors, he added.

This story was originally published by Strategic Partnerships, Inc.