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posted by martyb on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the you-can't-get-there-from-here dept.

In the year 2026, at rush hour, your self-driving car abruptly shuts down right where it blocks traffic. You climb out to see gridlock down every street in view, then a news alert on your watch tells you that hackers have paralysed all Manhattan traffic by randomly stranding internet-connected cars.

Flashback to July 2019, the dawn of autonomous vehicles and other connected cars, and physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Multiscale Systems, Inc. have applied physics in a new study to simulate what it would take for future hackers to wreak exactly this widespread havoc by randomly stranding these cars. The researchers want to expand the current discussion on automotive cyber-security, which mainly focuses on hacks that could crash one car or run over one pedestrian, to include potential mass mayhem.

They warn that even with increasingly tighter cyber defences, the amount of data breached has soared in the past four years, but objects becoming hackable can convert the rising cyber threat into a potential physical menace.

Hackers could use connected cars to gridlock whole cities

[Source]: Georgia Tech


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  • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:24PM (9 children)

    by Alfred (4006) on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:24PM (#873221) Journal
    When do you want to lock down traffic? Lets think of the ways:

    Hello good citizen. We are commandeering your vehicle to use it as a road block to make the criminals flee on foot to gain a tactical advantage.

    Lots of uses in movies. I, Robot or better.

    If I was in a getaway vehicle I would want to disable every vehicle I passed before they could get off the road and out of the way of the cops.
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  • (Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:45PM (3 children)

    by isostatic (365) on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:45PM (#873226) Journal

    Hello good citizen. We are commandeering your vehicle

    Is this currently legal in the U.S?

    I've seen it a few times in films where the cop says "I need your Car/Phone/Whatever", but it feels like it opens up the force to a major lawsuit.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Alfred on Tuesday July 30 2019, @09:31PM

      by Alfred (4006) on Tuesday July 30 2019, @09:31PM (#873269) Journal
      Who knows. private property rights are a thing in the USA but I would let them have it so I don't get shot for resisting.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @10:34PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @10:34PM (#873296)

      .. so many obvious angles .. truckers block highways when protesting work conditions/rights today .. how about car locks doors and drives you unwillingly to the police (movie: Home), or elsewhere (tv: Silicon Valley) .. car stops when enough sensors are interfered with ... car-to-car comms is a client-side validation vulnerability - my car tells your car that this route is blocked, pass it on .. ffs .. *obvious [soylentnews.org] stupidity* .. the real world will behave just like the Internet. The irony is that watching this disaster unfold is like watching a slow motion car crash ..

      ~ IL.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @11:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 30 2019, @11:17PM (#873317)

        No hackers. It's just a Windows Update.

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:46PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 30 2019, @06:46PM (#873227) Journal

    Hello good police officer, we are controlling the traffic lights so that you cannot catch up to the criminals.

    Please enjoy a donut. There is a donut shop 1.5 blocks north on the left side, if you are able to walk that far. Meanwhile the criminals flee on foot.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday July 30 2019, @07:46PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Tuesday July 30 2019, @07:46PM (#873242) Journal

    I was thinking Minority Report, but "I, Robot" has a good scene too. "I, Robot", was focused on the AI aspect of things and it taking over our lives. As opposed to Minority Report was more about government overreach.

    Different dystopian outlooks, same message. Don't trust automated, too much.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday July 31 2019, @01:56AM (1 child)

    by legont (4179) on Wednesday July 31 2019, @01:56AM (#873366)

    Well, in my part of NJ speed limit was just lovered to 25 to prevent ousiders from using local roads for through traffic (there are no highways in the area) and to increase revenue. They got the revenue all right. My question is what would be the lowest speed allowed? Typically it is defined as 15-20 miles below the limit, but that usually means highways. Can I with a couple of friends drive through those roads at 5-10 mph to teach them a little lesson?

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 31 2019, @03:26AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 31 2019, @03:26AM (#873407)

      What exit?