Attention all computer hackers – your years of under-appreciated work may come to use. Learn how to break into a Tesla Model S and you may just earn yourself a job.
Tesla is looking to hire up to 30 full-time employees from the hacking community to help them reveal flaws in its security system.
The electric automaker’s decision to hire came to light at the recent annual Def Con Conference in Las Vegas. The conference has been going on for 21 years and is considered to be the Olympics of hacking. With over 10,000 participants, it is an opportunity for the best hackers in the world to get together and sharpen their skills. This year, the security pros participated in exercises such as taking over control of the hotel elevator and more.
Tesla is poaching these hackers for an opportunity to join their team and work as programmers. The role of these programmers would be to find security flaws in Tesla vehicles, so that the automaker could fix them.
The importance of such protection continues to grow – especially now that several hackers have revealed security flaws in a Tesla car during a recent competition in China. These hackers proved that it’s possible to gain control of a wide variety of functions, ranging from navigation to door locks.
These previous hackings have allowed Tesla to start recruiting experts for what could be the largest electronics-security team in the country. There is even opportunity for interns or anyone who finds a flaw within a Tesla vehicle. Those who do will get rewarded with public recognition through a mention on the Tesla website.
However, Tesla is not the only automaker that should be concerned about internet hackers since there are many other car brands, such as Audi and General Motors, which rely on an always-on internet connection for their vehicle and have high chances of being hacked. Reports from the Centre for Automotive Embedded Systems Security confirm that many cars are indeed vulnerable, and as such, proper precautions should be taken.
