Disgruntled ex-employee bricks and "honks" over 100 cars using the web

Filed under: Security

Take a car. Put in a black box, hooked into the horn and the ignition. On the other end of the box, put a website (connected wirelessly). Let employees use the site to honk the car's horn remotely or prevent it from starting.

Reads rather like a nerdy college prank, doesn't it? I'm afraid this is actually a commercial system, deployed on thousands of cars, used to "get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments". In other words, this is trouble just waiting to happen. And indeed, trouble struck. Allegedly, a disgruntled employee by the name of Omar Ramos-Lopez was fired, and then logged onto the system using another user's credentials to wreak said havoc. He targeted specific cars at first, but then found out he could go through them alphabetically and went on like that for about a hundred cars. Much fairer that way, I guess.

That's just one good reason to pay for your car in full (or get one without a web-connected black box!).

Disgruntled ex-employee bricks and "honks" over 100 cars using the web originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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