The unfortunate death of acclaimed journalist Michael Hastings back in 2013 has inspired an investigation into what exactly can the modern hacker do. In Hastings’ unfortunate car accident, his vehicle may have been under the control of someone else.
Hastings was killed in a car accident in 2013, when his vehicle crashed at high speeds. The Huffington Post discovered an email sent by the reporter, which claimed that he was working on a big case and was “going off the radar.”
The email began with the phrase “The Feds are interviewing my ‘close friends and associates.'” Following the reporters death, some have speculated that the car accident was perhaps a car hijacking. With all of the electronic systems on modern vehicles, as was Hastings’ Mercedes, the car may have been hacked.
Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke was interviewed by The Huffington Post about the matter.
He said,
“What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it’s relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn’t want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn’t want the brakes on, to launch an air bag. You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it’s not that hard.
“So if there were a cyber attack on the car — and I’m not saying there was. I think whoever did it would probably get away with it.” Clarke told The Huffington Post.
