Ford Adds Security and Other Features to Sync System
By RIVA RICHMOND
The Internet is coming to cars – and so are security systems to keep viruses and hackers out.
Ford Motor plans to announce Monday a set of data-security technologies for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles that have Sync — a system that lets car owners connect digital media players and Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to their vehicle’s entertainment system and operate them with voice commands or controls in the steering wheel. Sync, which Ford developed with Microsoft and first released in 2008 models, also provides driving directions, traffic information and weather, sports and other news.
Sync is available in most midrange models as a $395 option and comes standard in more expensive ones. Car owners must activate Sync, but about 70 percent do so, Ford says.
In 2011, Sync will also allow Wi-Fi Internet access and Web surfing when the vehicle is in park. And this development will open the door to new electronic security issues. Malefactors could look for ways to access a car’s computer systems via the Internet, much as they do today with PCs.
With that in mind, Ford is introducing new security features to ensure that no harm can come to the vital systems used in the operation of the vehicle or to the valuable personal data brought into cars via mobile devices.
Ford has not yet seen any malicious virus attacks or hacks of vehicle computer systems, says Jim Buczkowski, director of global electrical and electronics systems engineering. But he said preparing for that possibility now that the car and consumer-electronics world are colliding is “just prudent.”
Customers are likely to get “all the good things as well as the bad things” that come with Internet connectivity, he says. “It’s important that we take those lessons learned from the Internet and bring them to the car.”
To start, Ford has added a hardware firewall that regues what information may pass between the entertainment system and the vehicle’s computer. The two computers must exchange information about things like GPS location, temperature and speed. But the firewall bars connections by any external parties looking for direct access to the vehicle’s computer.
Moreover, the entertainment computer does not allow the download or execution of any applications, which could include malicious software. While users will be able to get upgrades of the Sync system, those won’t come via the Internet connection. Rather, customers must download Ford’s updates on their computers, put them on a USB thumb drive and plug that device into the car’s USB port. The computer won’t accept any new software that isn’t from Ford. (Any changes to the vehicle computer must be made at a dealer.)
Ford is also adding tools that protect personal information, such as contact lists and address books provided to the car by mobile phones and music libraries provided by digital-music players. And it’s introducing a “valet mode” feature that lets drivers add a four-digit PIN to protect programmed home addresses stored in their navigation systems from prying eyes.
Finally, Ford is unveiling several new locking features to deter would-be car thieves, including an “engine immobilizer” that prevents hot-wiring and a code system for entry without a key.
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