Here's the good news: No evidence exists that anyone has duplicated the exploit in the real world. The incident was also a wakeup call for automakers that are rapidly adding Internet-connected features to cars. Hacking into an automobile is quite difficult, as well, and likely beyond the capabilities of your average numbskull.
That's not to say these kinds of attacks won't ever happen, and a few simple safeguards can make your connected car a lot more secure — and they won't cost you a penny.
I recently spoke to a security expert who has dedicated a good amount of thought to the issue. Matt Clemens is a security solutions architect with Arxan Technologies, a company that specializes in helping software developers protect their code from hackers.
"The Jeep hack was a game-changing event," according to Clemens. Few people had given that sort of attack much thought, but the auto industry is now taking it very seriously, he says. Chrysler, for example, hadn't adequately protected a website that contained source code for some of its devices. The "white hat" hackers broke into the site, stole the code, reverse engineered it, and used it to take over the Jeep Cherokee.
Chrysler fixed that problem, and other auto and component makers subsequently took similar steps, according to Clemens.
To help avoid any problems in the future, Clemens suggests all connected car owners follow these four steps.
Clemens wasn't trying to convince me (or you) to buy anything, so I take him seriously. We live in a world that's packed with foolish, often dangerous, people and we all use increasingly complex devices we don't really understand. It's not hard to imagine someone successfully hacking automobiles in the future, and it's not a bad idea to start thinking about connected car security today.