Disgruntled Ex-Employee Remotely Disables 100 Cars

hansamurai writes "Over one hundred cars equipped with a Webtech Plus blackbox were remotely disabled when a former employee of dealership Texas Auto Center got hold of his employer's database of users. Webtech Plus is repossession software that allows the dealership to disable a car's ignition or trigger the horn to honk when a payment is due. Owners had to remove the battery to stop the incessant honking. After the dealership began fielding an unusually high number of calls from upset car owners, they changed the passwords to the Webtech Plus software and then traced the IP address used to access the client to its former employee."

Comments

Re:They say racism doesn't work...but...

[Anonymous Coward]

We hired George W. Bush and he screwed us a lot worse than that. And he wasn't a "Spic."

Back door?

[zippthorne]

What back door. The ex-employee had the password. He went in the *front* door.

It's not a back door if you forget to change the locks.

The real question is, why is there *one* password for all the cars? Shouldn't it be one password for each employee who has access to log into the "car disabling" server which then sends the lockdown signal using a trusted certificate?

They shouldn't have to change the passwords at all, just delete the employee's user account.

Re:Repo in AZ

[BitZtream]

You might want to look around. There are laws on the books pretty much everywhere that state something like that.

In NC all the repo man has to do is have the repo order, then find the car. At that point he can report it stolen and you're now a criminal. The repo order makes them the owner and you a theif, you don't stop them from taking your car because they'll call the cops, who arrest you and take you to jail for auto theft.

As for making it harder on repo men, boo fucking who. Repo men are scumbags. I realize their job is 'required' from some viewpoint, its not one I will ever share. You're not going to find too many people with sympathy for them, I for one am happy to see anything done to make their lives more difficult.

P.P.S. throwing your political agenda on the end of a comment costs you about half your credibility off the top if you are 100% correct and all your credibility if you're even mildly inaccurate or disagreeable. Its best not to do it unless you want to make it perfectly clear that you're a sheep trying to ride the current political bashing fad and also an idiot.