Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

California's Wireless Road Tolls Easily Hackable

Posted by timothy on from the no-sir-I-was-in-seattle-at-the-time dept.

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."

3 of 354 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Cameras at every toll booth by cayenne8 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    "I mean, come on - I am against taking pictures of everything all the time, but the red light cameras are one where they are pretty foolproof at only taking pictures of scofflaws who are endangering everyone else. That seems to be a good thing."

    As the other poster said, there have been cases where the private company running these cameras weren't making enough money, and shortened the yellow light, or even rigged the cameras to take pics while light was yellow, but, showing red on the ticket. Studies have shown that in a VERY high percentage of cases, if they extended the length of the yellow light at troublesome intersections, that the number of people running red lights almost dropped to near zero.

    One of my other problems with the system here...was that the cameras aren't only taking pictures of light runners. They have still and full motion cameras...they showed a case of cars sitting there at a red, and a car going around the front one and running the light, all in full motion. That means the cameras are running all the time...I don't like that.

    I'd heard that someone was bringing suit against them in that they are unconstitutional in the state of LA...in that they aren't on every intersection, and the law states something like there has to be equal enforcement on all LA roads,etc.

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  2. Anonymous clubs by bugnuts · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps this can be used to create privacy clubs, where they all travel on cloned cards and all share the bill. Their movements couldn't be tracked via this system as long as multiple people were using it.

    I hope this wasn't posted already... I searched the thread for "Anonymous" and then felt kind of silly.

  3. Re:sounds familiar by HungryHobo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm waiting for anyone out there who doesn't like these systems to cause a little chaos.

    Imagine grabbing the ID of the mayor as he drives by(pretty damn easy) then it's just a matter of wandering through a carpark programming every tag with a matching code.