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Bush advisor: Hastings crash ‘consistent with a car cyberattack’
RT ^ | June 25, 2013

Posted on 06/26/2013 5:56:33 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

A former cybersecurity advisor to President George W. Bush says a sophisticated computer hack could have been the cause of the automobile accident that claimed the life of journalist Michael Hastings last week in Los Angeles.

Richard Clarke, a State Department official-turned-special advisor to several United States presidents, said the early morning auto crash last Tuesday was "consistent with a car cyberattack,” raising new questions about the death of the award-winning journalist.

Hastings died last week when his 2013 Mercedes C250 coupe collided with a tree in Los Angeles, California on the morning of June 18. He was reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed and failed to stop at a red light moments before the single-car crash. He was only 33.

Speaking to Huffington Post this week, Clarke said that a cyberattack waged at the vehicle could have caused the fatal collision.

"What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the brakes on, to launch an air bag," Clarke told The Huffington Post. "You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it's not that hard."

"So if there were a cyberattack on the car — and I'm not saying there was," Clarke continued, "I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."

The Los Angeles Police Department said they don’t expect foul play was involved in the crash, but an investigation has been opened nonetheless.

In an email reportedly sent by Hastings hours before the crash, he told colleagues that he thought he was the target of a federal investigation.

“Hey [redacted}, the Feds are interviewing my ‘close friends and associates,’” Hastings wrote 15 hours before the crash.

“Also: I’m onto a big story, and need to go off the rada[r] for a bit,” he added. “All the best, and hope to see you all soon.”

The email was supplied to KTLA News in Los Angeles by Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs, who says he met Hastings while the journalist was embedded in Afghanistan in 2008. It was reportedly send to a handful of Hastings’ associates and was blind-copied to Biggs.

“I just said it doesn’t seem like him. I don’t know, I just had this gut feeling and it just really bothered me,” Biggs told KTLA.

Reporters at Buzzfeed where Hastings worked say they received an email from their colleague, but the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a statement two days after Hastings’ death to quash rumors that they had been looking into the reporter.

“At no time was Michael Hastings under investigation by the FBI,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

According to the Associated Press, however, Hastings’ fingerprints were on file with the FBI and were used by the bureau to identify his body after flames consumed much the auto wreckage last week.

"I believe the FBI when they say they weren't investigating him," Clarke told the Huffington Post. "That was very unusual, and I'm sure they checked very carefully before they said that."

"I'm not a conspiracy guy. In fact, I've spent most of my life knocking down conspiracy theories," he said. "But my rule has always been you don't knock down a conspiracy theory until you can prove it [wrong]. And in the case of Michael Hastings, what evidence is available publicly is consistent with a car cyberattack. And the problem with that is you can't prove it."

Clarke, 62, spent nearly two decades at the Pentagon before relocating to the White House where he served under President Ronald Reagan and both Presidents Bush. He served as special advisor to President George W. Bush on cybersecurity until leaving the administration in 2003 and is currently the chairman and CEO of Good Harbor Security Risk Management, LLC.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: bush; michaelhastings; nsa; obama
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Whatever happened here, Clarke is a buffoon.


41 posted on 06/26/2013 8:08:28 PM PDT by Homer1
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To: bigbob

Sorry, but you must not know much about modern cars.

First, most modern luxury cars don’t have a ignition interlock, and even if they did, the computer wins, since the ECM remains active even if the ignition key is off, if the engineers who designed the control system deem it so.

Secondly, most systems have ABS now. The solenoid for ABS can interrupt braking force to any given wheel in a modern car ... it’s part of the government mandated stability system. It can also *apply* brakes. My car, a 2012 Civic Si, actually did this tonight for me in a rain storm, to keep me from spinning into the ditch (low speed on wet road, but sport Michelins and rain water don’t get along).

Thirdly, most modern cars have a fly-by-wire throttle. The system simply has a sensor that tells it how far you have the accelerator pushed. The computer can choose to adjust the throttle plate via the servo, or not. This is also linked to the vehicle stability program. It allows the computer to maximize fuel economy (open the throttle all the way, turn off spark and fuel, and you waste a lot less energy on deceleration, just one scenario).

Fourth, many cars are shipping with electric power steering. Another computer controlled system, also under command of the stability program, you will not be able to steer against it.

Fifth, all these systems are networked, so they can figure out what is working and what is not, and can send control commands back and forth, modulating throttle, braking force, and steering force.

Sixth, a simple easter egg in the stability program could simply apply breaking force to one wheel, remove it from another. It does this all the time in normal operation. Having it fail spectacularly all at once wouldn’t be beyond the pale. It could also, ask the computer to go to maximum throttle.

I am a software engineer. Given the source code to these systems (or stolen source code for these systems -— do you really think Mercedes could keep NSA hackers out of their systems?), I could probably generate the hack in a day or less.

Even more interesting, is the fact that many systems are now sharing the same bus as the stability & ECM. Whose to say you couldn’t just upload the program using unintentional security gaps in the control software via the car’s Bluetooth interface, or key remote interface? It’s all possible if you have people paid lots of money to find these holes. Or at least stable day jobs to find these holes. Many hackers would jump at the chance of trying to pull off something like that.

When I read about him blowing through a stoplight at 100mph, this was my immediate thought on the matter, but I tend to not let my conspiracy mind out to play publicly, but I think it must be said this time.

So where do you get your technical info, seems as though it may be out of date?


42 posted on 06/26/2013 8:46:47 PM PDT by Aqua225 (Realist)
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To: Smokin' Joe
Does a computer hack blow the engine out in the street?

If it makes the car go 140 MPH directly into a tree, it might.

43 posted on 06/26/2013 8:51:45 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Nice! We just bought a new GLK 350 and I love it!


44 posted on 06/26/2013 9:27:14 PM PDT by sheana
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To: norwaypinesavage
To steer it into a pole, the hacker would require VERY FAST communication, including video.

Appears that the steering was very precise.

45 posted on 06/26/2013 9:49:06 PM PDT by justa-hairyape
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To: hamboy
There's video I saw as if a drum of gasoline was on fire.

One of the nice things about diesel fuel is it doesn't burn like gasoline.

That's why military vehicles are all diesel, an ordinary accident won't make them burst into flames.

That takes an explosion to aerosolize the fuel...

46 posted on 06/26/2013 9:49:25 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of oppression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: COUNTrecount; Nowhere Man; FightThePower!; C. Edmund Wright; jacob allen; Travis McGee; opentalk; ..

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t add you to the list...

47 posted on 06/26/2013 9:51:42 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of oppression, and the democrats gleefully use them!)
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To: justa-hairyape
These are better ones.


48 posted on 06/26/2013 9:58:51 PM PDT by justa-hairyape
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To: Smokin' Joe
If the numbers just don't fit, then the ejection of the engine/transmission (as shown by distance of travel) might have had some help beyond the basic physics of a car crash.

Note that in the video of the crash fire, there is a gusher just ahead of the tree. That has to be a fire hydrant smashed off, causing damage to the underbody and gas tank prior to hitting the tree.

49 posted on 06/26/2013 11:14:16 PM PDT by brityank (The more I learn about the Constitution, the more I realise this Government is UNconstitutional !!)
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Comment #50 Removed by Moderator

To: brityank
Pretty low pressure for a fire hydrant.

It would help if someone who knows the street there could verify or refute the presence of a hydrant there. Most of the visible damage to the vehicle is to the front. If the vehicle had hit a fire hydrant, the engine should have been shoved more underneath the vehicle, not launched down the road.

Also, a gushing water source would tend to spread the fuel more (gasoline floats), not leave it in a puddle under the vehicle.

51 posted on 06/27/2013 3:39:17 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: norwaypinesavage

Sounds like drone technology, applied to a car.


52 posted on 06/27/2013 5:01:28 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (Guns kill people, pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk & spoons make you fat.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Sweet!


53 posted on 06/27/2013 5:02:01 AM PDT by Carriage Hill (Guns kill people, pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk & spoons make you fat.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

A lit of people wanted him dead.


54 posted on 06/27/2013 5:03:02 AM PDT by GlockThe Vote (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave ofo attacks on America after 9/11)
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To: Revolting cat!; Perdogg; Slings and Arrows

Lemme ask y’all this, if there was a cybercarjacking scene in a Jimmy Bond double-naught spy movie and the guy’s car drives off the road into a tree and explodes, would you accept it or would you scream, “NO WAY! WHAT A CRAPPY PLOT TURN!!”


55 posted on 06/27/2013 5:18:06 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (America 2013 - STUCK ON STUPID)
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To: null and void

oh goody....Dick Clarke weighs in again...mister ‘let me apologize to the American people’ Clarke....the doofus who’s hair is on fire and he still doesn’t know a bit from a bot


56 posted on 06/27/2013 5:55:45 AM PDT by Nifster
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To: justa-hairyape

The car exploded before it hit the tree.


57 posted on 06/27/2013 8:31:05 AM PDT by bmwcyle (People who do not study history are destine to believe really ignorant statements.)
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To: Deathtomarxists
"Easy, Bluetooth"

Bluetooth has a range of about 3 feet.

58 posted on 06/27/2013 10:01:23 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: WhistlingPastTheGraveyard

Beat me to it. That’s probably what the accident report will say.


59 posted on 06/27/2013 11:15:18 AM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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To: LyinLibs
Chasing him across the USA/Europe is difficult compared to LA.

They learned that with Snowden.

60 posted on 06/27/2013 11:20:20 AM PDT by bgill (This reply was mined before it was posted.)
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