Almost everything can be hacked, including sniper rifles

WaPo ^ | July 30 at 4:08 PM | Thomas Gibbons-Neff

[BenLurkin]

In a recent WIRED article, security researchers Runa Sandvik and Michael Auger tackled just that issue. The wife and husband duo purchased two $13,000 TrackingPoint rifles and spent the last year reverse engineering and hacking the rifles’ computers. The two plan to present their research at the Black Hat hacker conference in two weeks, according to the article.

TrackingPoint bills itself as a company comprised of “lifetime NRA members and engineers.” The products sold on its website seem standard enough when it comes to a gun company: bolt-action rifles, semi-automatic carbines, etc. The “5.56mm semi-auto,” basically a M16-type rifle, costs more that $7,000.

The rifles boast a setup that looks ripped right from the future. The company even mentions that some of the technology used in its rifles is also used to help fighter jets lock on to their targets.

Though advanced, the weapons are not secure. Using a WiFi connection, Sandvik and Auger figured out how to reprogram the rifles scope, disable the ballistic computer and even prevent the weapon from firing. In one test, the couple tricked the onboard computer into believing a .4-ounce bullet weighed 72 pounds, throwing the reticle, and subsequently the shot, off significantly.

[AFreeBird]

Aw man, that looks sweet! Whatever you do, don’t take it out on a boat!