Photo courtesy of Tesla.

Photo courtesy of Tesla.

A pair of researchers hacked a Tesla Model S battery-electric vehicle to test its security capabilities, although Tesla has distributed a security patch to all Model S owners, reported Wired.

The two researchers — Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer of mobile security firm Lookout, and Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at Cloudflare — were able to start and drive the Model S by connecting a laptop into a network cable located behind the car's driver-side dashboard. The researchers were also able to shut down the car's engine remotely, while another driver was behind the wheel.

After finding the security vulnerabilities in the Model S, the researchers worked with Tesla to develop fixes for those issues, according to the Wired story.

The hacking comes in the wake of hackings of General Motors and Jeep vehicles.

0 Comments