[ExI] self driving cars

[Anders Sandberg]

On 16/05/2012 09:18, BillK wrote:
>
> I doubt if this will happen more than once (if ever).  The TSA,
> police, FBI, etc. would actually get serious about computer crime.
> Anonymous is treated just as a bit of a nuisance at present. But if
> people start being killed then Anonymous members will be killed in
> retaliation. Anonymous will be treated the same as terrorists. Goon
> squads will kick doors in at 4 am and shoot at any sign of resistance.
> Drones will blow up property where Anonymous is traced to. (Sorry
> about the collateral damage, but it was necessary to destroy the
> village in order to save it).
>
> Yes, there will be less freedom and more authoritarian restrictions.
> But that is happening already and will only increase as powerful
> weapons become available to smaller and smaller groups.

So the conclusion is, lots of burning villages filled with pissed-off 
ex+citizens. Nice to know I am on the right side of the atlantic, where 
the goons at least are polite.

I agree that the car hack is likely to be a one time big event; as soon 
as the security and safety implications become obvious people will spend 
a lot of effort on fixing them (hunting hackers is a sideshow). But I 
fear that it is going to be trickier to secure this kind of system than 
most people think. It is distributed, it involves heavy machinery, it 
involves software from many sources, it is intended to be "smart" - 
plenty of chances for exploits to crop up. And the economic impacts of 
successful hacks can be big - nice incentives for blackmail and other 
inputs to the black economy.

A real possibility is that authorities will think about this from the 
start and demand secure systems by defult - something that may prove so 
onerous to implement well that either only a few big actors can do it or 
the industry actually finds itself unable to comply well.

Basically, the computer security issue is a nontrivial headache.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University