Tesla Hails Researchers To Hack Its Cars Without Fear
The security-conscious Tesla Motors have declared to the researchers that they are welcome to hack into their cars for research’s sake, without the dread of voiding any warranty, a non-running vehicle and any sort of legal obligation.
Before doing researchers such a huge favour, Tesla mentioned that there are certain requirements that are mentioned in the company’s vulnerability reporting programme, that need to be met. To begin with, the enterprise must be sincere and valid, the registration of the vehicle, as well as the researcher, is a must and of course, there must be an approval for carrying out the said tests.
Only after ensuring about the requisites will the company provide over-the-air (OTA) assistance to the researchers to get their cars up-to-date. Tesla standard tools including some other suitable ways make it possible for the car’s firmware to ‘reflash’ when used at service centres.
According to the company’s warning, the requests for assistance must be narrowed down to a limit, expenditure for towing the vehicle is not to be expected and that the company's goodwill is not to be maltreated.
The researchers and their cars will be impervious to charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
If no other codes or binaries are approached by the pre-approved researchers, copyright infringement claims would not be put under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Megamos Crypto Transponder, which is used in anti-theft devices in key-less cars, had a major weakness to it, and researchers were impeded from revealing it by the help of a court order, back in 2013. Volkswagen, Bentley, Audi and Porsche all of these celebrated brands had this system installed in their cars. Volkswagen sued the researchers and was able to hold back their work until 2015 when they finally exhibited it at the USENIX security conference.
With its head held high, Tesla fathoms the need for any such research work that makes its products better and refined in any way possible. In fact, the company has stated that if someone succeeds to report a confirmed vulnerability, the name of that researcher would be listed in the Tesla’s hall of fame.
