**Porsche Panic in Russia: Pricey Status Symbols Forget How to Car**

The streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg were filled with the sounds of panic last week as hundreds of Porsche owners found themselves stranded, unable to start their vehicles. The cause of this sudden mass immobilization has sparked speculation about a possible hack, but Porsche officials have assured us that their vehicles' cybersecurity is intact.

The issue began when local dealership chain Rolf traced the problem to a loss of satellite connectivity with their Vehicle Tracking Systems (VTS). This caused the systems to mistakenly trigger the vehicle's engine immobilizer, effectively rendering them immobile.

But what about Porsche's role in this debacle? According to reports, the German carmaker has ceased exporting vehicles to Russia and no longer provides after-sales service due to sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine. It appears that systems like VTS are operated by local Porsche subsidiaries or dealer networks, leaving owners without access to technical support.

A statement from Porsche HQ to The Register downplayed the severity of the issue, insisting that no other markets were affected: "The cybersecurity of our vehicles is a central concern for Porsche... Protection against cybersecurity attacks is ensured by comprehensive security processes and technical measures over the entire life cycle of our vehicles."

But how did Porsche owners manage to overcome this problem? Resourceful Russians have reportedly resorted to workarounds, including disabling or rebooting the VTS, removing it entirely, or disconnecting their car's batteries for ten hours. However, these solutions didn't work in every case.

The issue has raised eyebrows among security and privacy experts, who were skeptical of a possible cyberattack. Cian Heasley, principal consultant at Acumen Cyber, noted that "if this were a coordinated cyberattack, I would have expected one of the larger pro-Ukraine groups to have claimed this attack by now and posted some sort of evidence."

Rik Ferguson, VP Security Intelligence at Forescout, shed light on the intricacies of modern immobilizers: "Modern immobilizers don't react only to what happens around the vehicle, they depend on a constant 'trust heartbeat' signal from cloud or satellite backends... A deliberate hack and an intentional backend shutdown can look almost identical."

High-end vehicles rely on a complex web of services outside the owner's control, spanning the cloud, satellite operators, and regional partners. This makes them vulnerable to disruptions, whether due to sanctions, contract disputes, misconfigurations, or attackers.

Bugcrowd CSO Trey Ford added: "It sounds like the system design has a fail-safe where if there is a loss of satellite service (platform issues, military, etc.) can lead to a lockout of the vehicle... This could be down to an engineering issue, failed update, or something as trivial as a service plan accounting error impacting satellite communication services."

The incident highlights broader concerns around connected vehicles. Chris Hauk, consumer privacy advocate at Pixel Privacy, pointed out that engine kill systems can be used by hackers to cause havoc and by totalitarian governments to shut down vehicles belonging to "enemies of the state." Paul Bischoff, consumer privacy advocate at Comparitech, added: "Any feature that requires a network connection should not affect the basic functionality of the vehicle."

As it turns out, Russian Porsche owners were not alone in their ordeal. Russia's elite are also fans of luxury marques like Bentleys and Aston Martins, which have not been affected by this issue.

**Update:**

* A spokesperson for Porsche has confirmed that no other markets were affected by the issue. * Resourceful Russian owners have resorted to workarounds, including disabling or rebooting the VTS, removing it entirely, or disconnecting their car's batteries for ten hours.