Assume self-driving cars are a hacker's dream? Think again

Self-driving cars feel like they should provide a nice juicy target for hackers. After all, a normal car has a driver with their hands on the wheel and feet on the pedals. Common sense suggeststhis provides a modicum of protection against a car takeover which a self-driving car, or even one with just the sort of assisted driving features already found on the road today, lacks. But that's the wrong way round, says Craig Smith, a security researcher and car hacker. "One interesting thing about fully self-driving cars is they're unintentionally more secure, which is really not what you would expect at all." Alongside his day job as the head of transportation research at security firm Rapid7, Smith runs the Car Hacking Village at Defcon, the world's largest hacking convention, in Las Vegas.