Tesla Motors courted hackers at the infamous DEF CON hacking conference, which was held from Aug. 6-9 , 2015 in Las Vegas.
Tesla Motors participated in the event, displaying a black Model S electric vehicle in a hacking village while recruiting talent to protect its cars from cyber attacks.
It is the second consecutive year that Tesla Motors is participating in DEF CON which is the biggest gathering of hackers in the world.
"Hackers are a crowd that is really important to us," said Tesla Motors spokeswoman Khobi Brooklyn, adding that the hacker community is something that the company is looking to become part of and make collaborations with.
More importantly, Tesla Motors is looking to recruit talent from the massive crowd of hackers that attended DEF CON, with the conference being held right after a massive recall order was issued by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles due to hacking vulnerabilities in its vehicles.
The recall order, which involved 1.4 million cars and trucks, came after a demonstration by security researchers on how they were able to hack into a Cherokee Jeep and take full control of the vehicle remotely. They were able to do so by tapping into the Jeep Cherokee's Uconnect system, which is the Internet-connected computer component found in many vehicles by the manufacturer.
Vehicles by Tesla Motors are highly computerized, with the new features and software updates being released to cars over the Internet. This would make the vehicles susceptible to hacking attacks, and at DEF CON two researchers proved that it could be done.
The two hackers revealed that, by connecting a computer into the Model S, they can start and drive the vehicle. They can also force the car to stop and shut off power even when somebody else is driving.
Tesla Motors acted quickly with the revealed issue though, releasing patches on Aug. 6, 2015 that addressed the vulnerabilities.
Recruiters from Tesla Motors were at the event, along with several members from the security team of the company. They were looking for talent to detect and protect Tesla Motors vehicles from hacking vulnerabilities such as the one displayed in DEF CON.
According to Brooklyn, so far, there have been no cyber attacks aimed at vehicles by Tesla Motors and with how the company is looking to recruit hackers, it seems that it wants it to remain that way.
