The headline that hackers took control of a Tesla is slightly misleading - they needed physical access (which could be referred to as having broken in) to the car.
Nevertheless the point is, as we move further into the Internet of Things there will be more and more opportunities for hackers and legitimate software companies to control these devices in ways that were not intended by the manufacturer.
Clearly this is both an opportunity and a threat but it does suggest that there is a significant risk to the consumer that they cannot possibly mitigate themselves.
Insuring this risk financially makes sense but it does seem a difficult bit of maths because of the massive number of possible outcomes from so many devices running so many different applications.
Also, who needs to be insured, Tesla or the driver?
The hack on the Tesla car, to be detailed on at the cyber security conference Def Con in Las Vegas on Friday, is the latest in a series of vulnerabilities discovered in connected cars. One high-profile case led Fiat Chrysler to recall 1.4m Jeep Cherokees last month. The hackers had to physically access the Tesla first, which made it more difficult than many other hacks. Once they were connected through an Ethernet cable, they were later able to access the systems from afar.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d0d1932a-3b05-11e5-8613-07d16aad2152.html#axzz3hjkgCTsP