Cryptic vehicle shield

1. A method of providing an alert of an occurrence of a hacker intrusion, the method comprising:

detecting a hacker intrusion; and

transmitting a concealed or camouflaged report of the hacker intrusion to provide an alert of the occurrence of the intrusion,

wherein the transmitting of the concealed or camouflaged report of the hacker intrusion is dependent upon determining whether a target of the hacker intrusion is located in a hostile environment in which the target is exposed to a hacker attempt to determine how to breach the target, and not transmitting the report while the target is in the hostile environment.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein transmitting a concealed or camouflaged report comprises engaging in a habitual pattern of message transmission and concealing or camouflaging the report in the habitual pattern of transmission.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the habitual pattern of message transmission comprises transmitting messages in a normal message format that is used for transmitting information in an absence of a hacker intrusion and transmitting the report in the normal message format.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the habitual pattern of message transmission comprises transmitting messages in accordance with a normal temporal pattern of transmission that is used for transmitting information in an absence of an attempt at a hacker intrusion and transmitting the report at times that accord with the normal temporal pattern of transmission.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein transmitting the report so that it does not appear temporally related to a time at which an attempt at a hacker intrusion occurs.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein transmitting the report so that it does not appear temporally related comprises determining a random response time delay and transmitting the report at a time based on the determined random time delay.

7. The method according to claim 6 , and comprising determining the random response time in response to detecting the hacker intrusion.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein concealing or camouflaging the report comprises transmitting portions of the report hidden in messages that are not associated with reporting a hacking intrusion.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein concealing or camouflaging the report comprises combining a salt with report data related to the hacker intrusion, encrypting the combination of the report data and the salt, and transmitting the encrypted data to provide the alert.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining if the target of the hacker intrusion is located in a hostile operating environment comprises attempting a communications handshake with an intended recipient of the alert, and if the handshake fails determining that the environment is a hostile environment.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein attempting a handshake comprises authenticating a digital certificate presented by the recipient.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining if the target of the hacker intrusion is located in a hostile operating environment comprises determining at least one frequency of occurrence of anomalous signals associated with a target of the hacker intrusion and determining whether or not the environment is hostile based on the at least one frequency.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein determining whether or not the environment is hostile comprises determining if the frequency is greater than a predetermined threshold.

14. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the at least one frequency comprises an instantaneous frequency.

15. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the at least one frequency comprises a running average frequency.

16. An intrusion detection system for providing a computing device with protection against intrusion by a hacker, the intrusion detection system comprising:

at least one memory having software comprising a set of instructions and data characterizing normal operation of the device and the intrusion detection system;

at least one connection to the computing device which the intrusion detection system is configured to use to receive signals useable to monitor operations of the computing device and/or communications to and from the computing device;

at least one communications interface via which the intrusion detection system is configured to transmit to and/or receive signals from an entity external to the computing device; and

a processor configured to, based on the set of instruction and the data, to process signals received by the computing device to:

detect a hacker intrusion; and

transmit a concealed or camouflaged report of the hacker intrusion to provide an alert of the occurrence of the intrusion,

wherein the transmitting of the concealed or camouflaged report of the hacker intrusion is dependent upon determining whether a target of the hacker intrusion is located in a hostile environment, in which the target is exposed to a hacker attempt to determine how to breach the target, and not transmitting the report while the target is in the hostile environment.

17. The intrusion detection system in accordance with claim 16 , wherein the computing device comprises at least one device that is a component of a communications network.

18. The intrusion detection system in accordance with claim 17 , wherein the communications network comprises an in-vehicle communications network.