Graduate Cryptographers Unlock Code of 'Thiefproof' Car Key

New York Times ^ | January 29, 2005 | JOHN SCHWARTZ

[MississippiMasterpiece]

From left, Prof. Aviel D. Rubin, Adam Stubblefield, Matthew Green and Stephen Bono working with cards programmed to conduct an assault on a car-key chip.

[Jet Jaguar]

Inventive bunch. Good work.

[goldstategop]

Anything the pros want to steal - they can get. Most security systems will stop people who don't have the patience or training to get past it. So the implications of this are theoretical for most of us. We have to balance the expense of security with the likelihood a theft will occur.

Denny Crane: "I want two things. First God and then Fox News."

[night reader]

OK! If it takes a Johns Hopkins grad student to steal my car, I'm willing to run the risk!

[BobL]

I like the part about disabling automated toll collection systems. Maybe these kids can put our demented governor's plan out of business (in Texas).

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1329336/posts

[OldSmaj]

...and the medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles, plans to implant chips in cadavers to curtail unauthorized sale of body parts.

Well, I'm impressed that it takes a grad student and several professors from our institutions of higher learning to make a dent in the security of my vehicle, but...

I was definitely not aware that we had a problem with body parts from cadavers being sold.

Who is selling them?

Who are they selling them to?

Who removes them for sale?

Who accepts them and installs them?

I thought I was a pretty well-read and knowledgeable person, been there/done that kind of person, but this is the first I've heard of this.

I can just see some poor fellow that got the bargain-basement deal at his local flea market for his left kidney, walking down the street, whistling away, only to be confronted by the "Stolen Body Parts" squad from the local precinct, it having been detected by a "routine" RFID scan of the poor fellow.

This could be hugh and series.

[j. earl carter]

people could block eavesdroppers by keeping the key or Speedpass token in a tinfoil sheath

See, maybe the tinfoil hats are a good idea.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Future NSA employees?

Good news for all you online bankers?

[Semi Civil Servant]

My Dad always said locks only stop honest people.

[aspiring.hillbilly]

There is not a piece of technology out there that cant be cracked or duplicated given enough computer time. This is why a scheme for a national ID card is a folly, and reliance on that in the name of security will lead to catastrophe.

[Wilhelm Tell]

OK! If it takes a Johns Hopkins grad student to steal my car, I'm willing to run the risk!

If a Johns Hopkins grad student can do it, I'm sure any druggie high school dropout with an IQ of 80 will have no trouble hacking your car's security system. /sarcasm

[rbg81]

No. But you have some computer whiz in Moscow hired by the Russian mafia creating a program & process. That then gets distributed and the mafia sets up car theft rings in multiple cities.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Locked car doors can be opened by a universal remote TV clicker...

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

"This is why a scheme for a national ID card is a folly, and reliance on that in the name of security will lead to catastrophe."

And note that the Big Auto execs are denying that RFID is a problem. Technology including guns are mere tools used by people for good or evil. Sometimes the good create tools and systems the evil hijack.....

SCENARIO: keep in mind the book of Revelation, then think of "1984" and then the '70s movie "A Thief In The Night" (or the current "Left Behind" blockbusters)....then consider our satellite network, the capabilities of ecommerce, cell phones, children animals and felons already injected with satellite trackable capsules...now RFID taking hold in a big way--and vulnerable to hacking.....

(truly end-times apocalyptic shudder) God save us from ourselves!

[RichardW]

"There is not a piece of technology out there that cant be cracked or duplicated given enough computer time. This is why a scheme for a national ID card is a folly, and reliance on that in the name of security will lead to catastrophe."

Not if it is a DNA fingerprint. That can't (to my knowledge) be duplicated. I am very much in favor of a national ID card.

[babygene]

"Locked car doors can be opened by a universal remote TV clicker.."

I thought TV clickers were IR.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

My son (the computer/2800 geek) claims it can be done.

[wildbill]

What can be done in theory, imitated in tests, and is practical in real life are often different. I'm not sure most of the car thieves around are really high tech gurus, willing and able to spend the time and money.

And couldn't the chips be remanufactured to add a couple of numbers into the encription, making the breaking of the code more difficult by a multiple?

[GOP Jedi]

SCENARIO: keep in mind the book of Revelation, then think of "1984" and then the '70s movie "A Thief In The Night" (or the current "Left Behind" blockbusters)....then consider our satellite network, the capabilities of ecommerce, cell phones, children animals and felons already injected with satellite trackable capsules...now RFID taking hold in a big way--and vulnerable to hacking.....

(truly end-times apocalyptic shudder) God save us from ourselves!

But consider, in your scenario, who might be doing the hacking. Who is most likely to want to circumvent the government in those days? Some may someday bless such vulnerabilities.