Kamel Ghali knows exactly how easy it is to steal a car, and it’s rarely the movie-style hack you’d expect. As Vice President of International Operations for the DEF CON Car Hacking Village, and a veteran automotive cybersecurity researcher, penetration tester, and educator, Kamel has spent nearly a decade finding the real vulnerabilities in modern vehicles, from infotainment systems you can root with a USB drive to EV chargers that can be knocked offline from meters away.
In this episode, Kamel joins Terry to break down what’s inside the DEF CON car hacking masterclass he teaches every summer, the growing risk EV charging infrastructure poses to fleets running electric vehicles overnight, and why a single well-placed attack, not a mass hack, is often enough to shake public confidence in an entire transportation system. He also shares the real story behind a CAN injection car theft ring busted on the news in Japan, and where he thinks automotive cybersecurity is headed over the next ten years.
In this episode:
What actually happens inside DEF CON’s official car hacking masterclass
Rooting an aftermarket infotainment system with nothing but a USB drive
Why EV chargers are as much a target as the vehicles they charge
The “Broken Wire” attack that can disable an entire fleet of electric vehicles overnight
A real CAN injection car theft ring busted on the news in Japan
Why regulators are pushing automotive vulnerability disclosure programs
What the next ten years of vehicle cybersecurity could look like
Kamel Ghali is Vice President of International Operations for the DEF CON Car Hacking Village, lead ambassador for Car Hacking Village Asia, and founder of the Japan chapter of the Automotive Security Research Group.
Learn more at fleetdefender.com
