Skip to main content

Volkswagen sues to prevent hacking of luxury car anti-theft systems

A group of Dutch and British scientists at the UK’s University of Birmingham has discovered the secret algorithm used to identify the identity of each unique ignition key used to start luxury and exotic cars such as Porsches, Lamborghinis, Audis and Bentleys, all part of the German Volkswagen Group. The scientists, Baris Ege, Roel Verdult and Flavio Garcia had hoped to publish the paper at the USENIX Security Conference in Washington next month but Volkswagen sued to prevent them from disclosing key details
July 31, 2013 Read time: 1 min
A group of Dutch and British scientists at the UK’s University of Birmingham has discovered the secret algorithm used to identify the identity of each unique ignition key used to start luxury and exotic cars such as Porsches, Lamborghinis, Audis and Bentleys, all part of the German 994 Volkswagen Group.

The scientists, Baris Ege, Roel Verdult and Flavio Garcia had hoped to publish the paper at the USENIX Security Conference in Washington next month but Volkswagen sued to prevent them from disclosing key details of their work, arguing that publicising the flaw would put the security of some of its most expensive vehicles at risk.

The UK’s high court has imposed an injunction stopping the publishing of such papers, while the university has issued a statement saying it will ‘defer publication’ of the paper.

Related Content

  • December 6, 2012
    Debating the future of in-vehicle systems
    Industry experts talk to Jason Barnes about the legislative situation of current and future in-vehicle systems. Articles about technology development can have a tendency to reference Moore’s Law with almost indecent regularity and haste but the fact remains that despite predictions of slow-down or plateauing, the pace remains unrelenting. That juxtaposes with a common tendency within the ITS industry: to concentrate on the technology and assume that much else – legislation, business cases and so on – will m
  • November 18, 2015
    Real-world testing is needed in wake of VW emissions scandal, says expert
    As vehicle manufacturers, regulators and governments around the world seek solutions to prevent another emissions cheating scandal similar to the Volkswagen case, a major vehicle emissions inspection company has compiled and analysed on-road emissions data indicating that emissions violations of vehicles under real-world driving conditions may well go far beyond VW diesels. Opus Inspection says a two-pronged approach that continuously monitors real-world emissions is the only effective remedy. Lothar Ge
  • August 23, 2016
    Asecap debates the future of tolling
    Colin Sowman reports form Asecap’s Study & Information Days event in Madrid. At Asecap’s (the Association of European Toll Road Operators) recent Study and Information Days event there was no doubt about the subject at the top of the agenda: the European Union Directive 23/2014/EU. This will introduce fundamental changes to the concession model under which Asecap members operate more than 50,000km of tolled highways and, in response, it has compiled a report entitled Proposal for a Sustainable Concession Mo
  • January 23, 2012
    Speed reduction measures - carrot or stick?
    In Sweden, marketing company DDB Stockholm employed a mock speed camera as part of a promotional campaign for automotive manufacturer Volkswagen. The result was worldwide online interest and promotion of the debate over excessive speed to the national level. A developing trend in traffic management policy is to look at how to induce road users to modify their behaviour by incentivising change rather than forcing it through the application of penalties. There have been several studies conducted into this; an