California's Wireless Road Tolls Easily Hackable

An anonymous reader writes "Nate Lawson, a researcher at RootLabs, has found a way to clone the wireless transponders used by the Bay Area FasTrak road toll system. This means you can copy the ID of another driver onto your own device and, as a result, travel for free while others foot the bill. Lawson also raises the interesting point of using the FasTrak system to create false alibis, by overwriting one's own ID onto another driver's device before committing a crime. Luckily, Lawson wasn't sued before he could reveal his research, unlike those pesky MIT students."

Comments

Cameras at every toll booth

[maynard]

And they can record license plates. I think this hack has little criminal viability. Anyone who used it extensively would be caught in short order. Though authorities might be willing to let the criminal conduct continue on until the criminal passed the felony threshold.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[Aphoxema]

The only problem is that they probably started this system to cut on costs and cut out human error. I doubt they'll actually put in any protection or change the system, they'll just try to crack down on people that commercialize it like blueboxing and cable descramblers.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[mweather]

It's a sad day when getting your car dirty raises your insurance rates. My lawn is brown, and I don't pay anything extra on my homeowners insurance for it.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[Chainsaw76]

"pretty foolproof"
Your kidding right? There have been many cases of the Red Light Companies moving sensors around to catch people who Hadn't run the red light. And the one time I got a ticket from this system, the plate was unreadable, the Dark 4 door sedan pictured didn't look anything like my white 2 seat convertible, and we (my car and I) were 800 miles away at the time on the time stamp.

-J

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[EMeta]

Um, no. Better no one doing it. Running reds isn't like going 10 mph over the speed limit. People die from that. A lot. It really shouldn't be about the income.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[repvik]

I consider using the state-provided roads as a privilege, not a right, that requires your car to be identifiable by a valid licence plate.
If the plates are obscured, either by dirt or by purpose, isn't it reasonable to give a ticket to deter this?

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[dgatwood]

No more unreasonable than requiring people to wear their driver's license in a plastic badge holder while walking on public sidewalks. Papers, please.

It should certainly be illegal to use such a tactic to evade a toll. That said, if you are not breaking the law, the only thing they truly have a legitimate need to see is the little colored sticker that says whether your plate has expired or not. Other than that, their "need" to read the plate and identify you is nothing more than a figment of their power tripping imaginations.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[Anonymous Coward]

I consider using the state-provided roads as a right, not a privilege, like those other things that the state has been authorized (by the people) to take my money to do.

When a private company builds its own damn roads, then it can be a privilege.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[Bobb Sledd]

I might have agreed with you until they use my tax dollars to pay for this "privilege." Which they effectively pry from my hands. No, I consider it a right. And it isn't state-provided, either... it's tax-payer-provided.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[charlesj68]

For anything more serious than a simple inventory, encrypted RFID devices should be the rule.

Ah, but you must understand that to the "Powers That Be" you are just simple inventory.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[element-o.p.]

So you've been off-roading in your street-legal vehicle, and your car/truck/whatever gets covered in mud. How do you transport it to a car wash to get the mud off the license plates so that it is legal to drive on the roads again?

Or more likely here in Anchorage, it is late spring and the snow is melting, which when mixed with all the sand that was used all winter long to provide traction on the snow and ice makes for a muddy mess. You simply *cannot* wash your car often enough to keep it clean during break-up in Anchorage, and yes, that includes your license plates. It's difficult enough sometimes just to keep your windows and headlights clean enough to see where you are going..

At the very most, it should be a warning ticket that is dismissed after you clean up the plates so that they are legible again.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[RpiMatty]

Running thru a red light 10 seconds after it has turned red is one thing.
Running a red light because the city changing the time, shortening the yellow light, to catch more "red light runners" is bullshit.

http://www.motorists.org/blog/red-light-cameras/6-cities-that-were-caught-shortening-yellow-light-times-for-profit/
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/118879.html

Yes, people who blatantly run a red light are dangerous, but the solution isn't to setup red light cameras, and modify times to catch more people to generate income. In lots of places it is about the income, and not about the safety.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[Bob-taro]

Um, no. Better no one doing it. Running reds isn't like going 10 mph over the speed limit. People die from that. A lot. It really shouldn't be about the income.

I'd say that depends on how long it's been red. If you mis-time a short yellow and are in the intersection when it turns red, that's not too dangerous. No more than driving 10mph over (which may be why the yellow light seemed so "short"). That's one problem with automatic ticketing systems - they can't put the incident in context very well.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[garett_spencley]

"I sort of agree with your sentiment, except that I percieve using a car on the road is a privilege"

I don't. We paid to put the roads there and everyone should be able to use them however the hell they want so long as they don't harm anyone.

I prefer to punish people AFTER they have done harm. Not before.

License plates, laws against drunk driving[1], justifying drug criminalization by claiming that drug use increases rates of crime, placing curfews on public parks etc. is all preemptive and it places a burden on an innocent society. There's no reason not to throw the book at someone who breaks the law but asking society to give up their freedom for the sake of reducing crime statistics is unfair. It costs tax dollars, gives the government a way to profit off of criminal behaviour (traffic fines) and regulation (licenses, vehicle registration etc.) and I don't think it actually does much in the way of achieving it's goal of preventing crime anyway.

[1] - I realize that's borderline trollish so I'll justify that: killing someone and violating traffic laws is already illegal. Why do we have to make it more illegal? Has all of this money spent - and made - by cracking down on drunk drivers actually reduced the number of dangerous drivers on the road ? What about sober drivers who are just as dangerous as people who are drunk ? In Ontario it's now illegal to drive with ANY ALCOHOL WHAT-SO-EVER in your system. You can not transport any alcohol that has been opened and any alcohol you do transport needs to be out of reach of the driver (ie: in the trunk). During peak holidays such as new years etc. they put up road blocks on every major road and stop every single car to smell the driver's breath. It punishes everyone for the mistakes of a few. It's getting extremely out of hand.

Re:Cameras at every toll booth

[garett_spencley]

Ok, to turn this around a bit. Can you tell me exactly which pieces of asphalt/concrete you have paid for?

As far as I'm concerned, all of it. We have tax on gas sale, income tax, sales tax, taxes on all vehicle purchases (new or used), driver's licenses, license plates, road tolls, traffic fines (which I'm against but we still pay them), parking fees (for publicly owned parking garages and meters etc.). All ways of giving money to the government for things like road upkeep. How they use it very much my business but I haven't personally investigated how my money was put to use.

Point being We ALL pay for public infrastructure in one way or another so we should all be able to use it to heart's content so long as we don't harm anyone. I don't see why it should be any more complicated than that.

This is nothing new...

[Chineseyes]

When I was a teenager (late 90s) there were a few people selling a device about the size of two bricks that could fool ez-pass by using another person's id. This is why when you sign up for ez-pass you have to give them the make and model of your car as well as your license plate number. They have two cameras on either side of your car pointing at you and numerous overhead cameras when you pass through so I believe any sort of fraud would be pretty difficult to pull off. I'm sure California has a similar setup and if they don't then they better get working on it.

Easily hackable, but a useless hack...

[SuperBanana]

...given that almost all of the toll transponder systems in the US have cameras, and plate recognition is done. I once got a ticket from another state (NY), claiming a plate I had years ago had gone through one of their upstate tollbooths. Also, my father would get notices in the mail from our state's system when he moved the transponder to a vehicle that wasn't registered to use it. So. Useless hack, sensationalist article, film at 11.

Roll Eyes

[mpapet]

1. How many tolls will be stolen? Too few for anyone in the project to care. They will treat this like "ID theft" and the burden is on you.

2. How many people are going to want or actually *do* anything TFA suggests. It's a number very close to zero.

The same kind of thinking applies to most automated transit toll collecting system. No one that could do anything about these issues cares or would be foolish enough to waste budget on corner cases like this. It would be a huge political/professional liability if they did.

Summary of Article

[lancejjj]

This means you can copy the ID of another driver onto your own device and, as a result, travel for free while others foot the bill.

Interpretation:

This means that one can steal services electronically, committing a felony punishable by jail time, while at the same time greatly annoying fellow citizens whose id has been stolen.

Re:Simple solution

[quacking duck]

Maybe other democratic governments aren't quite as corrupt?

It's amazing to me that you can totally distrust your government to do anything right, yet think that private enterprise overseeing parts of your life is somehow better.

Okay, so less of your income is taxed. The flip side is that the company isn't accountable to anyone--you can't vote them out! And if they *are* accountable to someone... well guess what, it's probably to government oversight!

Re:Simple solution

[AnotherUsername]

I trust the government to do a better job than a private company. Call me crazy, but the private company is in it SOLELY to make money. The government, while making money, would be doing it because it is a job that they are trusted to do fairly, and are held accountable by the people. Companies are held accountable by their shareholders, and will do anything and everything to make money, including screw over the general populace.

As for your condemnation of the 'promote the general welfare' clause, I ask, why not have these programs? Part of the government's job is to provide a safety net, because, believe it or not, sometimes shit happens. Part of living in a society means helping out others in that society. If someone in your community is needing help, you help them out. Having programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and other programs is so that, when the times get rough, there is something there to help you get back on your feet. This is called COMPASSION for those in need.

As for the commerce clause - Are you kidding me? Companies are being allowed to EASILY send all their jobs overseas, buying shoddy products from China to be sold here, to pollute as much as their money will let them, to use tax loopholes to screw workers out of benefits they have had for years, and God knows what else. And you think their the government is regulating with an iron fist? On the contrary. The government needs to start regulating commerce much, much more, to ensure that corporations do not trash the world and the people in it, simply for a better bottom line. While there is nothing wrong with a free market, an unregulated free market will bring about the downfall of civilization, and working man will suffer the most because of it.

As for your Ayn Rand fascination, you probably should know that she is all about herself, and screw everyone else. She was a selfish bitch who didn't give a damn about anyone else except herself.

And if you were thinking that running red lights is not illegal, and that you have a right to run them, please never drive near me. I'd rather not die because you felt it was your moral right to plow into me at 70 miles an hour.