Intel hires hackers to secure cars from computer viruses

Intel Corp has tasked a group of top hackers at a West Coast garage to look for electronic bugs that could make automobiles vulnerable to lethal computer viruses.

With its McAfee unit, better known for software that fights PC viruses, Intel counts among a small number of firms finding ways of securing dozens of tiny computers and electronic communications systems  that are being increasingly integrated into cars.

According to security experts, automakers had done little to protect these systems, leaving them vulnerable to attacks by hackers and others looking to steal cars, eavesdrop on conversations or harm passengers by making vehicles crash.

According to John Bumgarner, chief technology officer of the US Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit organisation that helps companies analyse the potential for targeted computer attacks on their networks, products attacks could definitely be launched to kill people.

No reports of violent attacks have yet been had been received says SAE International, an association of over 128,000 technical professionals working in the aerospace and the auto industries.

Ford spokesman Alan Hall, however said his company had tasked its security engineers with making its in-vehicle communications and entertainment system, Sync, as secure as possible.