Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

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EmptyTimCup

Guest
:faint:


another reason not to buy a new car / car from a Stealership


Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely
# By Kevin Poulsen Email Author
# March 17, 2010 |

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.

Texas Auto Center began fielding complaints from baffled customers the last week in February, many of whom wound up missing work, calling tow trucks or disconnecting their batteries to stop the honking. The troubles stopped five days later, when Texas Auto Center reset the Webtech Plus passwords for all its employee accounts, says Garcia. Then police obtained access logs from Pay Technologies, and traced the saboteur’s IP address to Ramos-Lopez’s AT&T internet service, according to a police affidavit filed in the case.




how Onstar does it

In the early morning of October 18, Jose Ruiz was carjacked at gunpoint. Flagging down a passing police car, Ruiz notified them that his 2009 Chevy Tahoe was equipped with OnStar®. OnStar was immediately able to pinpoint the vehicle's exact GPS location, and once officers spotted it, they requested that OnStar use its Stolen Vehicle Slowdown® technology to bring it to a stop. Ruiz had his Tahoe back without a scratch 16 minutes after OnStar was called, and the suspect was safely apprehended.

Millions of vehicles are stolen each year, often resulting in high-speed chases that put innocent lives and property at risk. Available on select OnStar-equipped 2009 model year and newer vehicles, Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is an industry-exclusive breakthrough that could change all that. Welcome to a new age of stolen vehicle recovery.


do you really know what is being installed in your vehicle these days
 
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glhs837

Power with Control
Yep, I know exactly whats in mt car, all 12 modules and what they do. As for that Texas thing, that device is aftermrket, installed by the dealer and used for allowing cars to be sold to poor credit folks, and I'll bet every one of them signed a statement saying they were briefed on it, and what it could do.
 

aps45819

24/7 Single Dad
As for that Texas thing, that device is aftermrket, installed by the dealer and used for allowing cars to be sold to poor credit folks, and I'll bet every one of them signed a statement saying they were briefed on it, and what it could do.

That wasn't exactly a "hacker" situation. It was the result of very poor security policy on the part of the dealership. Basic security practices dictate you change access codes whenever personnel change. The dealership should be held responsible for all losses incurred by their customers.
 
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EmptyTimCup

Guest
Agreed, a harbinger of upcoming martial law, not quite:)



no but the OnStar thing is creepy ....

I will not be buying a Gooberment Motors Vehicle for this reason .... well not manufactured after 1980
 

glhs837

Power with Control
"Creepy"? Why, its not like the capability is hidden, its just a thing. And your safe up til sometime after I think 2008, I think thats when they implemented that feature.
 
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