Slashdot Mirror
London Hacked Its Own Traffic Lights To Make Sure It Got the Olympics
bmsleight writes "Does it count as a hack if you change your own system? Vanity Fair report that during the bidding process for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the London Streets Traffic Control Center followed each vehicle using CCTV, 'and when they came up to traffic lights,' [bid committee CEO Keith] Mills said, 'we turned them green.'"
...except without all the crashes and explosions and mini-coopers with gold bricks in them.
Every Olympic bid since Sydney's bid for the 2000 games has done the same. This isn't anything new.
Last thing any sane person would want is being constantly followed. Now we know the Brits are willing to do this if they think they can get something out of it. So far for privacy. Oh and next time you're in the car with your pregnant wife trying to get to an hospital but can't because the lights are red... Well, the police chief is probably on his way home and needed the lights to be green...
using CCTV to change traffic lights (apart from showing just how widespread the coverage in London is) is almost minor compared to some of the other bid stunts - they took the motorcade through the (at that time, not yet opened) railway tunnels from St Pancras to Stratford, as if to demonstrate how easy it was to get to the Olympic site - provided you didn't see any of that "get in the way" stuff. Like the city...
"She's furniture with a pulse"
It's "Potemkin village".
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
closing down the whole street for the convoy.
It was really difficult to find which cars they allowed through in Vanity Fair for those who don't feel like reading the rest of the article about the most boring subjects on the planet: olympic sports, and London
"Near the end of the application process, an I.O.C. evaluation committee was permitted to visit London. Bid-committee officials knew that London’s transportation system was a weak spot on the city’s application. “Our nightmare was it would take forever to get to the venues,” Mills recalled. A bid-committee team planned the routes that I.O.C. members would travel around the city, and G.P.S. transmitters were planted in all of the I.O.C. members’ vehicles so they could be tracked. From the London Traffic Control Center, near Victoria Station, where hundreds of monitors display live feeds from London’s comprehensive CCTV surveillance system, each vehicle was followed, from camera to camera, “and when they came up to traffic lights,” Mills said, “we turned them green.”
The IOC may be the most powerful commercial venture in the world. Or do Apple and Google have enough pull to subvert local traffic laws too? Scary stuff and it needs to be put a stop to before it goes any further. This is way out of control.
Nevada is mulling the concept of paying to drive over the limit.
While I think thats immoral, I can see legislators drooling over the possibility of allowing drivers to pay to get more green lights.
I am not surprised that London had to resort to CCTV to achieve that. (The movie Brazil comes to mind).
Help eliminate speeding tickets
You'd be surprised how much hardware and software have back doors built into them, much of it legally.
GOOGLE: Cisco routers back doors
and you'll find hours of reading material alone just for one company.
WIKILEAKS: published information on dozens of companies making spyware for hardware and software and selling it to governments.
When is the last time you checked the firmware on your PCI devices and network card?
Your router?
Dumped and checksummed/debugged your BIOS lately?
Why aren't the anti-malware companies like Symantec and others climbing over each other in an effort to invent the technology and utilize it via the cloud to create GIANT databases of checksums for legit firmware for hardware in the fight against the most serious of root kits? Are they in bed with big bro?
How many so called remote exploits were patched this week in Windows? This month? This year? Since its release? Start from the beginning of the Windows version release and count all of the remote exploits up to present day and compare that to OpenBSD for example.
##
U.S. govâ(TM)t wiretapping laws and your network
â" https://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/012307-us-govt-wiretapping-laws-and.html
âoeActivists have long grumbled about the privacy implications of the legal âoebackdoorsâ that networking companies like Cisco build into their equipmentâ"functions that let law enforcement quietly track the Internet activities of criminal suspects. Now an IBM researcher has revealed a more serious problem with those backdoors: They donâ(TM)t have particularly strong locks, and consumers are at risk.â
â" http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/03/hackers-networking-equipment-technology-security-cisco.html
I consider this fair play.
fact, this is one of the capabilities that the Olympic Committee should specifically look for. The ability of a city to dynamically change its traffic lights and alter traffic flow to deal with a special situation is an important one in a city hosting an major event like this. It means that if they manage it properly, they can reduce congestion around the site, get atheletes and fans in and out quicker and have a better chance of having everything go on schedule. It's also a safety issue. If there are emergencies (and there always are when you have that many people in one place) you can get emergency vehicles in and out quickly.
London can probably do this better than most cities in the world because of its Big Brother system of pervasive security cameras. The cameras can be used for good, too, if they use them to reduce traffic congestion, detect that the crowd is starting to leave the event so they can begin adapting the traffic flow before people even leave the parking lot, etc.
Cancel it, it sucks.
1. Giving IOC Observers the lights didn't "Make Sure" that London got the Olympics. A major overstatement to be sure. /.ers. Not only do we do it with packets, we already to it on roads. Vehicles with sirens and lights have first priority, and at least in tUSA we give funeral parades second priority. Third priority goes to buses which have TSP [traffic signal prioritization] systems, thereby holding a light green or turning it green when a bus approaches. Last priority: us regular users. Giving a higher priority to IOC Observers might not be a great use of taxpayer dollars or appropriate for fairness, but that's a local political decision and certainly not a novel application of technology.
2. While London may have used CCTV, it surely wasn't necessary. A few motorcyclists or taxi drivers with mobile phones and headsets could have just as easily kept tabs on the IOC Observers [so could GPS, though perhaps not as accurately as humans].
3. The idea of prioritizing traffic in a network should not be novel to
But hey, the story involves CCTV, traffic lights, and sports which don't always involve a ball or a puck. Perfect fodder for a silly /. article.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
It's not hacking...it's optimization.
250 miles of (arguably) the most congested roads in the world being zoned off for use of executives of BMW and McDonalds could finally trigger mass civil disobedience on a scale that's simply too big to suppress. CCTV might ensure that all 'crimes' are detected, but whether they can be punished is another question.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
The little people get to wait for the important people -- like the Olympic committee, or in the future perhaps anyone with enough money -- when the city changes its traffic patterns for them. After all, it is not really equality if the important people have to wait for red lights just like everyone else, right?
As for emergency vehicles, I live in a small city right now that manages to give them green lights without a special CCTV system. Each traffic light has a sensor that detects sirens/flashers and changes the light appropriately; it may sound surprising, but this is actually a reliable, well-engineered system.
We have big events here too -- the college football team's games draw big crowds from neighboring towns. CCTV is not needed for that either; police can simply disable traffic lights at appropriate locations and direct traffic as needed. Perhaps this is more than London could be expected to do, given how large of a city they are, but somehow I doubt it -- they have a much larger police force than we have.
Really, the benefit of the CCTV system for traffic control is overstated here. What London is really showing the world is that when important people are in their city, they can give those people priority as if they were an emergency vehicle, and they can do so discretely. People might complain if police officers started waving through businessmen and politicians, but nobody can complain about the light changing, and there is no need for rich people to attach flashers to their cars.
Palm trees and 8
Putting thousands of factories off line to turn the sky back to blue. Talk about false advertising!
Transparent attempts to win people over are filtered by the cognitive part of the brain through the motive filter. Seemingly random positive results may bypass this critical filter to heighten mood and induce pleasure rather seductively.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Who said they couldn't do both?
Traffic Signals can be designed this way - it is called priority "Hurry Call" in the UK.
However, it is counter-initiative in that a crash change to the approach where the Emergency vehicle is heading may (for example) cause the middle of the junction to not clear - making it harder/long for the Blue light vehicle to get through and cause more congestion for subsequent emergency vehicles.
Absolute rubbish. Change the "green lights", behind the jam/incident will slow the flow into the congested area. Making it easier to get relieve the congestion. This with the use of VMS, encourages people to take alternative routes. Also upstream from the incident long green times will help traffic get away from the congestion.
Guess what - it is complex, but computer system and good algorithm can handle complexity.
Since nobody's yet posted the comment (or it's below my viewing threshold):
Premise: The International Olympic Committee's job/duty during the selection process is (at least officially) to make sure a place will be decent for those going to see the Olympics to stay and travel in. Also, it's supposed to check for logistical concerns relative to safety, access to venues, etc. A place that's not suitable is to be rejected, and a more/the most suitable place chosen.
Premise: Allowing bidders to "rig" a showing in such a way as hinders the IOC from properly assessing the above factors is problematic in fulfilling the purpose of the above selection requirements, and is therefore so undesirable as to preclude decent selection, short of basically random chance.
Premise: Bribery, "cheating," and other unethical acts are considered highly undesirable for any worthwhile organization to espouse or allow. An organization that systematically accepts and encourages such acts is not, in its present form, a worthwhile organization.
Premise: Britain has just admitted to such unethical acts as above, and the IOC isn't doing anything about it. It's also noted that the IOC's contract includes many terms and practices that are unethical and/or illegal under international law, and the laws of many nations, individually (including requirements about printing currency; forcing applicants to sign a binding contract to do a ton of expensive stuff before they're actually given anything; etc.).
Conclusion: The IOC is not a worthwhile organization (in its present form), and it does not fulfill at least some of the important (presumed official) purposes of that organization.
Conclusion: The continuation of this organization (in its current form) results from something entirely separate from its utility at fulfilling the sensible goals mentioned above, and almost certainly has something to do with the unethical practices being espoused.
Have I missed anything?
They must have been driving BMWs, they always have green lights - or their driver behaves like they had.
Do you have any sources that are not fox news to back that up?
Sources that aren't fox news made Obama into their candidate. Why would they report that?
A: Traffic system can be hacked (from inside but these days how hard could it be?)
B: CCTV can be used to track cars and most likely people
C: CCTV solves and/or prevents almost 0 crime (See Wiki)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/united-kingdom/090328/living-under-the-cctv-gaze
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
So? Its a simple fact that politics across the globe is so fucked up that you can't get anywhere without being corrupt and in the pocket of some well funded group.
Every person who takes that office will end up screwing you so pointing out "look hes the same as everyone else" is just a waste of time. Why blame the pieces when the rules of the game are broken?
Surveillance? Meh. Focusing on the traffic lights, what I got out of this is that they are still brainless, uncoordinated, and poorly timed. If they weren't, it wouldn't be possible to squeeze large gains out of the system for a few chosen vehicles. How often do you end up stuck at a red for no good reason, waiting for one car or nothing? Just about every trip. What we have in the way of sensors and reflexive responses hardwired into the controls of the lights and periodically tinkered with is clearly not that good.
Are we ever going to get serious about improving traffic lights? It'd be a win on at least 3 fronts: global warming, lost productivity, and jobs. What's the estimate for collective hours lost to traffic jams? Over 100 million. Seems like it ought to be easy to agree that traffic lights need improving and that there is lots of room for improvement, and to devote some resources to the matter.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
the London Streets Traffic Control Center followed each vehicle using CCTV
"Each vehicle" in this case refers to the vehicles carrying the IOC members, not just "each vehicle" that happened to on the road at the time.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
That word definitely lost all its meaning... since when does manually intervening in an automated process (and that through interfaces there by design for this purpose) can be thought of as "hacking". From all editors in the world, those on Slashdot should know better.
The goal of this action has nothing to do with whether you can call it hacking or not. In this case, I believe "fraud" would be more appropriate. This is a textbook case of it.
Samaranch killed them. Please shut them down for good.
The IOC and their behaviour are disgusting and should be illegal. (no taxes, influencing and hampering the national sovereignty, monopoly, frivolous law suits, bribery, etc, etc, etc.)
I hate the "new" IOC (post-Samaranch) and the stupid olympic games. It is completely contrary to the original olympic idea.
Because emphasizing specific individual pieces allows one to feel like the flaw doesn't go down to the core of the system. They can then feel better about interacting with it; they feel their participation is worthwhile. They feel like they have some control. It is an emotional defense of sorts.
Not Obama himself but the moocher who got into University on an AA ticket and could not handle working in a law firm which she left and eventually arrived at the University of Chicago Hospitals where she was paid to pretend to work like at TreeHouse Foods.
London $ACT_OF_CANNIBALISM its own $IMPORTANT_UTILITY to $WEASEL_WORD it got $FASCIST_INTEREST
You can apply the same template everywhere. One day they're selling out to the I.O.C., the next they're hobbling their own civil freedoms to benefit the U.S. military-industrial complex. Seeing how they were a historic superpower, watching the government destroy its own economy and culture is, well frankly, fucking pathetic.
"Hey, our traffic sucks so bad, a bunch of greedy attention whores might not want to come spend our money. Quick, let's drop everything and suck their snooty cocks, rather than fixing the underlying urban problems."
-Billco, Fnarg.com
This clearly constitutes fraud. They weren't just kissing the IOC's asses by letting them breeze through traffic, they were letting them think it is easier to get around London, and that you can travel around it faster than is actually possible. That means the city they evaluated (London with hacked traffic lights) does not exist (for everyone dumb enough to visit that benighted shithole).
Consequently, they should revoke their granting the "games" to London, and give it to someone else who wasn't committing fraud to try to win the games by sneaky underhanded tricks.
By the way, I don't give a rats ass about the Olympics, I just think that fraud should be punished.
This has nothing to do with hacking. I'm a bit surprised that they used CCTV for monitoring and as it seems manual commands to traffic light controllers based on what they see, but still had GPS in place. Modern traffic control systems do this automatically based on vehicle identification, location data and/or using other priority requests messages. Maybe London needs to upgrade their system to something more up to date?
One of my favourite definitions of hacking : Using things in a unique way outside their intended purpose is often perceived as having hack value. (It's not me who posted this on WP).
They did is a hack with their CCTV+green-lights.
n/t
We did it, any city running for The Games who doesnt show off to the judging pannel has rocks in its head. they make this look like its a bad thing.
and some of those silly Americans want Mitt to be President
I don't particularly want Mitt to be president.
I just want they guy who took a ton of money from BP and Goldman Sachs to NOT be president.
Did Mitt bribe anyone to get the olympics? Possibly. But child's play next to the things Obama has done with funds going to "green" energy companies run by large Democratc donors that were doomed to go bankrupt in the end... not to mention Obama using all our money now and in the future to bail out his pals at Goldman.
You may complain about Mitt's naive political corruption, but you are ignoring the elephant sitting on your face to do so - forgive us if your complaints seem a bit muffled.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That's exactly the kind of dishonesty I expect from the establishment there. It's nothing new.
which unused bus lanes? the ones in Hackney have buses in them. Which ones do you mean?
Clearly, the IOC was impressed by the ability of the organisers to regulate traffic, which will be, of course, a major concern for the Games. Furthermore, this also demonstrates some of the security capabilities of the host city, another major issue.
....
y = mx + b
Maybe if we had known we could have hacked the lights to turn them all red.!
I was in a bar in France when the bid was accepted and virtually everyone in the bar groaned..
the French because their bid hadn't won ,,,
the English because theirs had