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Disgruntled ex-employee bricks and "honks" over 100 cars using the web
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!).
Comments
5
Subscribe to commentsyabunMar 19th 2010 12:05PM
That's awesome! How could a perfect system like that ever get bad press?
I understand you meant "brick" as in bricking an iPhone. But when I first saw that headline, I imagined a different kind of bricking (as in, through the windshield). ...how he threw a brick using the web I did not know.
F-ZeroMar 19th 2010 12:06PM
Does practice only occur in america?
never heard of it anywhere else - i guess people in the rest of the world generally don't buy things they can't pay for
SoCoolCurt (PSN: KillaKornbread - XBL: SoCoolCurt)Mar 19th 2010 12:34PM
this sounds kinda like how OnStar works. i know they have a commercial out now where the cops are chasing a car and talking to the OnStar lady on the phone. the lady proceeds to flash the cars brake lights so that the cops can correctly identify it and then turns off the engine forcing the criminal to coast to the shoulder where he is caught. it's great to have that kind of security but as you see here, it can certainly be a bad thing in the wrong hands.
DeoWulfMar 20th 2010 2:07PM
I wonder if I could make a Faraday Cage that doubles as a sweet grill...
JamesMar 21st 2010 2:38PM
I'm sure I'm not the first one to say this, but if you need to put in a remote killswitch to ensure that your client pays his loan, *maybe that's a loan you shouldn't make* in the first place. Crazy?