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posted by martyb on Thursday May 07 2020, @12:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the if-you've-done-nothing-wrong...? dept.

Hacker buys old Tesla parts on eBay, finds them full of user data:

Tesla infotainment systems are a marvel to behold. Among other things, they display Netflix or YouTube videos, run Spotify, connect to Wi-Fi, and of course store phone numbers of contacts. But those benefits require storing heaps of personal information that an amateur researcher found can reveal owners' most sensitive data.

The researcher, who described himself as a "Tesla tinkerer that's curious about how things work," recently gained access to 13 Tesla MCUs—short for media control units—that were removed from electric vehicles during repairs and refurbishments. Each one of the devices stored a trove of sensitive information despite being retired. Examples included phone books from connected cell phones, call logs containing hundreds of entries, recent calendar entries, Spotify and W-Fi passwords stored in plaintext, locations for home, work, and all places navigated to, and session cookies that allowed access to Netflix and YouTube (and attached Gmail accounts).

[...] The researcher, who goes by the handle greentheonly, told me he obtained 12 of the units off of eBay from pages like this one. He got the other one from a friend. Based on conversations he's had, he believes Tesla official procedure calls for removed MCUs to be sent intact back to Tesla and for damaged units to be hammered down to ensure that connectors are sufficiently damaged and then thrown into the trash.

[...] The moral of these stories is that it's up to individuals to perform factory resets when selling a car, returning a rental vehicle, or having an infotainment system serviced. Even then, there's no guarantee that previously stored data can't be recovered. The researcher said the Tesla MCUs keep information in a SQLite database that isn't deleted until the hard drive blocks that store it are overwritten by new data. While a factory reset may not be foolproof, it's likely to make the recovery process difficult and time-consuming enough to provide a meaningful, if imperfect, defense. When possible, the truly security conscious should destroy the units.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 07 2020, @01:00AM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday May 07 2020, @01:00AM (#991213) Journal

    Somehow, I don't think the 1%ers are often found driving Teslas. Tesla drivers are almost certainly in the top 10%, and some of them might be top 5%. The 1% are jetting around in their private jets, or being chaufered around by POC, unless they pay for good European aristocracy butlers and such. If any 1%ers are driving Tesla or similar cars, it's for a photo op, most likely.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:03AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:03AM (#991228)

    My Maserati does 185 / I lost my license, now I don't drive / I have a limo, ride in the back.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:14AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:14AM (#991229)

    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/27/how-much-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-top-1percent-in-every-us-state.html [cnbc.com]

    To be among the top 1 percent of U.S. earners, a family needs an income of $421,926, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute finds.

    However, the threshold varies significantly among states. In Connecticut, for example, you need an annual income of $700,800 to be in the 1 percent. In New Mexico, you need $255,429.

    Keep in mind that these numbers just represent the threshold — the average income of the top 1 percent nationwide is $1.32 million. The bottom 99 percent, on the other hand, earn an average of $50,107 a year.
    ...

    Takes a lot more than $422K or even $1.32M to afford a private jet, pilots and maintenance. Maybe one of the time-share-jet deals is possible at that income? The jet owners are more likely the top 0.1% (?)

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @03:31AM (#991235)

      1% is a much bigger club than the analogy is meant for. It just doesn't have the same metaphorical power saying the .1% club.

      Don't try and make metaphors match reality 110%.

    • (Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday May 07 2020, @04:07AM

      by MostCynical (2589) on Thursday May 07 2020, @04:07AM (#991241) Journal

      not cheap at all [aviationvoice.com]

      --
      "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @07:31AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @07:31AM (#991256)

      Very rich people have assets; they don't need income and probably want to avoid income to save on taxes.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @12:54PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 07 2020, @12:54PM (#991293)