Businesses that insert GPS trackers in their employees’ cars tend to see improved productivity, efficiency and safety.

These devices also come with concerns over employee privacy, but the benefits often trump the risks.

However, a recent report brought to light a measurable hacking risk with GPS trackers. The report in Motherboard stated that a hacker known as L&M has hacked into more than 7,000 iTrack accounts and more than 20,000 ProTrack accounts. Companies use these apps to monitor their vehicles’ GPS tracking devices. The accounts were hacked in South Africa, Morocco, India and the Philippines.

What’s more, the hacker alleges that he has the capacity to turn off the vehicles’ engines remotely if the cars are stopped or moving more slowly than 12 miles per hour.

This type of hacking is possible because most devices come with common default passwords that are easy to guess and use.

Business can take the following steps to protect their trackers:

• Protect devices with passphrases to make them tougher to hack.
• Use different passwords and passphrases for each account.
• Change all passwords frequently.
• Never save your passwords on your devices.
• Use multifactor authentication to enhance security.