Hacker Disables Autos: Sci-Fi Reality?

eagleseven

Quod Erat Demonstrandum
Jul 8, 2009
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Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.

“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”

The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets car dealers install a small black box under vehicle dashboards that responds to commands issued through a central website, and relayed over a wireless pager network. The dealer can disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due. The system will not stop a running vehicle.

Isn't it a reassuring thought, that your car can potentially be hacked via satellite? Will we have to run anti-virus software and firewalls on our vehicles, now?

Reminds me of...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAK2PVKio0g"]Ghost in the Shell[/ame]
 
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I'd like to the government to use this idea to disable the car of anyone who didn't pay his taxes or was driving too fast or was doing any of a number of things he shouldn't be doing.

Finally, we have the basis of effective law enforcement. The car's device could be cross-referenced to the license number. When a cop saw a bad guy, all he'd have to do is key the license number to turn-off the car.
 
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Technology is good..........but it has a 'dark side' such as absolute monitoring or control, if needed. The digital age has brought with it a multitude of issues that some would call a privacy issue, some call control, and some call just plain 'Big Bro'.

Vehicles, that have the "tracking package" all in the name of health and safety have a few Pros, but the Cons are, that your driving habits can be monitored. Speed, direction, altitude and of course exact location. And remember, you can talk back and forth through the local repeaters,if needed,supplied by those services, linking that communication via either land line or satellite, but, no one would use that for eavesdropping dropping now, would they?

Law enforcement eventually will use this as a means of issuing speeding tickets, government may use it for tracking, states may use it for a "Road Use" tax, miles driven etc.

With digital radios, usually advertised as "HD RADIO" (funny) for local terrestrial reception, digital television either cable or OTR, (over the air) transmissions will eventually be most or all subscription service. Many are free now, but like satellite radio and television, you pay to use.Also cable TV really needs no outside companies to 'rate' programs, they already know who watches what, when and for how long, in real time, if your using one of their boxes.

There are many other uses coming to a place near you. Unfortunantly also there are many people (hackers) who love to cause chaos, and disruption of services, the digital age has made it very easy to accomplish that goal.
 
Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.

“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”

The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets car dealers install a small black box under vehicle dashboards that responds to commands issued through a central website, and relayed over a wireless pager network. The dealer can disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due. The system will not stop a running vehicle.

Isn't it a reassuring thought, that your car can potentially be hacked via satellite? Will we have to run anti-virus software and firewalls on our vehicles, now?

Reminds me of...

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAK2PVKio0g"]Ghost in the Shell[/ame]

thats the trouble with trusting to much info to foreigners.
 
Having an old car seems to be teh only solution to that.
Which is why the environuts were allowed to change the coolant in auto AC's; now if you have an older car you'll suffer from not being able to have the AC fixed, thus encouraging you to obtain a hackable car.
 
old people talking about hacking and electronics in general is always amusing.
 
Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.

I know I shouldn't laugh at this, and applauding the innovative and imaginative in criminal retribution is simply wrong. It says something horrible about my character.

Oddly enough, I'm ok with that.

:lol::eusa_silenced::rofl:
 
Having an old car seems to be teh only solution to that.
Which is why the environuts were allowed to change the coolant in auto AC's; now if you have an older car you'll suffer from not being able to have the AC fixed, thus encouraging you to obtain a hackable car.


I converted mine to r134 for less than $100 each.
I think 94 or 95 was the cutoff date for R12, anything newer is R134.

On the one that had onstar, I disconnected that.
 
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am skeptical. will need proof

Keep an eye on your coffee maker.
;)

you going to put BSD on it?

Naah just checking to see if you would watch it :)


When I started out in computer tech. There were no micro processors, and memory was magnetic core ram. And I learned pure machine language first. Assembly language came next, it was much faster to program.
I can build a CPU almost entirely out of quad dual input nand gates.
Know how to build a JK flop out of dual input nand gates?
I was on the internet before it was the internet.
 
While I do not agree with having any type of control over anything we buy those boxes are only installed on people's cars that purchase them that has a bad credit history. Not every car sold.
 
While I do not agree with having any type of control over anything we buy those boxes are only installed on people's cars that purchase them that has a bad credit history. Not every car sold.

Au conrare some cars can be shut down by Onstar now.
 

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