Using Tire Pressure Sensors To Spy On Cars 203
AngryDad writes "Beginning last September, all vehicles sold in the US have been required to have Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) installed. An article up at HexView enumerates privacy issues introduced by TPMS, and some of them look pretty scary. Did you know that traffic sensors on highways can be adopted to read TPMS data and track individual vehicles? How about an explosive device that sets itself off when the right vehicle passes nearby? TPMS has been discussed in the past, but I haven't seen its privacy implications analyzed before. Fortunately the problem is easy to fix: encrypt TPMS data the way keyless entry systems do."
Finally, an April Fools story!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
DDoS (Score:1, Insightful)
RFID tracking (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, cars also come with this thing called a "license plate", which can also be tracked remotely and wirelessly.
Basically, if you drive, you can be tracked.
Hmmm.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Outside of Lebanon, I don't see this as being a huge concern. (And calling it a "privacy" issue seems a bit of an understatement.) The local governments aren't sufficiently motivated to fill potholes, let alone install IEDs specifically targeted at me.
An easier solution... (Score:2, Insightful)
The "solution" is not so simple. (Score:3, Insightful)
Unfortunately, there is a major difference here: failure to encrypt keyless entry resulted in stolen cars (something which caught people's attention and pissed them off), whereas you'll never even notice that your TPMS isn't encrypted. People are incredibly lazy and only take action when they perceive a threat to their person or property. Liberty? As Dick Cheney would say, "So?"
I'll bet adding encryption would cost the manufacturers $0.01 per tire (or some equally trivial amount), which they will claim will ruin them. Nobody else (except for a bunch of whiny, personal liberty freaks) will care about this and it will quietly become ubiquitous.
Besides, if you aren't doing anything illegal, why should you care who takes note of your comings and goings. We're here to help you and we certainly can't do that unless we know where you are ... at all times ...
Re:RFID tracking (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Finally, an April Fools story!!! (Score:3, Insightful)
How about another easy fix. Just disable the fscking thing.....
Re:Hmmm.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Spend several million dollars on a surveillance program so that they can track drivers and charge them extra taxes for daring to use the roads instead of the frequently late, often overcrowded, and incredibly slow public transportation? Hell yes!
(Spending said money on improving public transportation so people might use it? Hell no!)
Re:RFID tracking (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Get outta town (Score:3, Insightful)
Having every movement of every person on the street automatically recorded, indexed and cataloged into nationwide databases without the any human intervention is a completely different matter - that's a recipe for totalitarianism.
Right now, we are rapidly barreling down the road from how its been for thousands of years to the ultimate totalitarian state with very little good to show for it beyond political rhetoric.
Re:I Posted About This (Score:2, Insightful)
Run flat tires need TPMS (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh? (Score:4, Insightful)
In what way is tracking a person's possessions NOT a damned effective way of tracking the person?!?!
Do complete strangers drive your car often? So you see no need for concern until a tracking device is implanted directly into your skull?
Re:Part of me feels paranoid now... (Score:4, Insightful)
The real fun is who first thought of it
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1530661.ece [timesonline.co.uk]
Re:The "solution" is not so simple. (Score:1, Insightful)
Don't pretend you need your tire pressure monitor to be networked. It's just an added expense for nothing.
People know their tire pressures are not correct. Unless this device can FILL it up for them the little blinking light isn't worth the added cost or security loss.
Even if there is no unique identifier their is still the potential to hack it. Maybe use it as a means to trick unsuspecting drivers into pulling over and ambushing them.
How about somebody makes decent tires that don't wear out and lose air so easily, chances are the tire design is mostly at fault. Adding wireless gadgets to a flawed idea doesn't really make it better.
Instead, buy those mechanical tire caps from your local auto shop or even walmart. No batteries, GREEN for FULL
How is a wireless tire pressure sensor so much better ? People who are so oblivious they can't occasionally glance at their external tire cap shouldn't be mandating everyone's car use either.
The current crop of cars are such pathetic jokes... domestic and imports. While an effort to keep tires at proper inflation is a good idea since it saves gas, I don't think is the way.
Something like a new more automated maintenance model would be far more beneficial for end users and mechanics alike.
Does this tire pressure sensor make tires or tire service more expensive also ?
Re:RFID tracking (Score:3, Insightful)
You are assuming that there are no discontinuities in the space-time continuum. I never leave home without my wormhole generator.