Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

[midnight]

By Kevin Poulsen March 17, 2010 | 1:52 pm | Categories: Breaches, Crime, Cybersecurity, Hacks and Cracks
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.

Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/hacker-bricks-cars/#ixzz0ie0w2n5L

I had no idea that someone could remotely control my car?

[liberal N proud]

1. I was thinking the other day about this in regards to Toyota

They have a system on some of their cars like OnStar and can remotely slow down the vehicle.

What if a person was able to hack into that system and send code to the cars and have them accelerate remotely?

Some kid somewhere, every time he gets on his video game, someones Prius takes off on its own. The accelerator is controlled by the Wii!


Don't think it's possible but one can never underestimate electronic systems capabilities these days.

[midnight]

2. The possibilities for this technology are limitless I suppose...