Millions Of Volkswagen Cars With Keyless Entry Systems Can Be Hacked Wirelessly; Threat Also Spreads To VW-Affiliated Makes Alfa Romeo, Citroën, Fiat, Ford [VIDEO]

A team of researchers at the University of Birmingham have uncovered a security vulnerability among Volkswagen cars which allows hackers to wirelessly access its cars with relatively cheap instruments.

The team of researchers at the university, which is headed by computer scientist Flavio Garcia, revealed at least two security vulnerabilities that Volkswagen cars posses, Wired reported.

The research paper indicated that VW cars sold since 1995 are compromised. The team of researchers disclosed the security flaw at a Usenix security conference in Austin, Texas. The researchers were accompanied by a German engineering firm, Kasper & Oswald.

The threat and along with the data presented had uncovered that at least 100 million VW cars are compromised. The vulnerability revolves around the keyless entry systems, which allows a hacker to infiltrate the vehicle and start the engine.

The security vulnerability does not only affect Volkswagen cars, but also makes under the Volkswagen group of companies, which also compromises cars from Audi and Škoda.

An attack can be made possible with simple tools with a readily available piece of radio equipment. The hardware has the ability to intercept the signals from the owner's key, and apply the obtained signal to work on a clone key, according to ArsTechnica.

The team of researchers have disclosed that only the latest Golf-based models are safe from the security threat.

It is reported that VW have acknowledged the vulnerability, but it has been also revealed that the car manufacturer is using a handful of shared signal values among different components.

The shared value has been revealed to also affect makes such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Ford, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Citroën, as well as Peugeot. Garcia and his team of researchers have the paper published online on the Usenix website.

In contrast to recent events, General Motors, which has been also tagged as compromised, stated that the vulnerability does not affect the vehicle's performance nor compromise the safety of its vehicle's occupants, according to Detroit News.