Chris Valasek
More info
- Known for
- The 2015 Jeep hack (with Charlie Miller)
- Affiliation
- IOActive, Uber, Cruise
Security researcher who, with Charlie Miller, took control of a Jeep on the highway over the cellular network.
Valasek and Miller started on cars in 2013 with a laptop plugged straight into the CAN bus, and were told that physical access doesn't count. Two years later they had their reply: through the Uconnect infotainment unit and Sprint's network they could reach a Jeep Cherokee anywhere in the US, and in July 2015 they cut the throttle on a Wired reporter in the middle of a St. Louis interstate.
Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles, the first recall of its kind for a pure software flaw. The pair then moved to Uber's and later Cruise's self-driving efforts — getting hired by the people you used to frighten being a well-worn hacker career path.