Man accused of disabling 100 cars over Internet

[jimmy olsen]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35919648/ns/technology_and_science-security/

Man accused of disabling 100 cars over Internet
Texan fired from dealership remotely set off car horns at old workplace

By Jeff Carlton
updated 7:03 p.m. ET March 17, 2010

DALLAS - A man fired from a Texas auto dealership used an Internet service to remotely disable ignitions and set off car horns of more than 100 vehicles sold at his old workplace, police said Wednesday.

Austin police arrested Omar Ramos-Lopez, 20, on Wednesday, charging him with felony breach of computer security.

Ramos-Lopez used a former colleague's password to deactivate starters and set off car horns, police said. Several car owners said they had to call tow trucks and were left stranded at work or home.

"He caused these customers, now victims, to miss work," Austin police spokeswoman Veneza Aguinaga said. "They didn't get paid. They had to get tow trucks. They didn't know what was going on with their vehicles."

Ramos-Lopez was in the Travis County Jail on Wednesday with bond set at $3,000. The Associated Press could not find a working phone number for his family.

The Texas Auto Center dealership in Austin installs GPS devices that can prevent cars from starting. The system is used to repossess cars when buyers are overdue on payments, said Jeremy Norton, a controller at the dealership where Ramos-Lopez worked. Car horns can be activated when repo agents go to collect vehicles and believe the owners are hiding them.

"We are taking extra measures to make sure this never happens again," Norton said.

Starting in mid-February, dealership employees noticed unusual changes to their business records. Someone was going into the system and changing customers' names, such as having dead rapper Tupac Shakur buying a 2009 vehicle, Norton said.

Soon, customers began calling saying their cars wouldn't start, or that their horns were going off incessantly, forcing them to disengage the battery. Norton said the dealership originally thought the cars had mechanical problems.

Then employees noticed someone had ordered $130,000 in parts and equipment from the company that makes the GPS devices.

Police said they were able to trace the sabotage to Ramos-Lopez's computer, leading to his arrest.

Norton said Ramos-Lopez didn't seem unusually upset about being fired.

"I think he thought what he was doing was a harmless prank," Norton said. "He didn't see the ramifications of it."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

[The Larch]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Haven't you seen Die Hard IV? 

[Caliga]

The Texas Auto Center dealership in Austin installs GPS devices that can prevent cars from starting. The system is used to repossess cars when buyers are overdue on payments, said Jeremy Norton, a controller at the dealership where Ramos-Lopez worked. Car horns can be activated when repo agents go to collect vehicles and believe the owners are hiding them.

Haha, that's awesome.

[KRonn]

The Texas Auto Center dealership in Austin installs GPS devices that can prevent cars from starting. The system is used to repossess cars when buyers are overdue on payments, said Jeremy Norton, a controller at the dealership where Ramos-Lopez worked. Car horns can be activated when repo agents go to collect vehicles and believe the owners are hiding them.


Oh yeah, I'll buy a car from them... NOT. This is a bizarre business practice, isn't it? I've never heard of this before.

[jimmy olsen]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Haven't you seen Die Hard IV? 

Yeah, but I didn't take anything that the hackers or anyone else did seriously. It wasn't exactly a serious kind of film.

[Grey Fox]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Haven't you seen Die Hard IV? 

Yeah, but I didn't take anything that the hackers or anyone else did seriously. It wasn't exactly a serious kind of film.

Have you seen G-force?

[MadImmortalMan]

The Texas Auto Center dealership in Austin installs GPS devices that can prevent cars from starting. The system is used to repossess cars when buyers are overdue on payments, said Jeremy Norton, a controller at the dealership where Ramos-Lopez worked. Car horns can be activated when repo agents go to collect vehicles and believe the owners are hiding them.


Oh yeah, I'll buy a car from them... NOT. This is a bizarre business practice, isn't it? I've never heard of this before.

Judging from their website, it's a used car business that does it's own financing. Places like that usually have a low-income clientele and charge them 25% interest on their car loans. This one seems to be catering to latinos. Racist! 

[Brazen]

I wrote about the technology to do this. I got the impression it's quite widely used in the US and looks like this in operation:


It's not dissimilar to the track and trace GPS alarms you can have fitted to your car, where when you report your car as stolen, the operating company can disable it and report its location to the police.

[Darth Wagtaros]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Haven't you seen Die Hard IV? 

Yeah, but I didn't take anything that the hackers or anyone else did seriously. It wasn't exactly a serious kind of film.

Have you seen G-force?

Battle of the Planets?  Kinda dated by today's standards. 

[DontSayBanana]

It's not dissimilar to the track and trace GPS alarms you can have fitted to your car, where when you report your car as stolen, the operating company can disable it and report its location to the police.

GPS tracking, yes.  Starter disables, not so much, but not unheard of (though this is the first time I've heard of it in non-fleet vehicles, and I'd be willing to bet that that's going to become a sticking point).  First time I've ever heard of remote horn activation, though.

[Ed Anger]

We could have used that horn thing back in the day.

[jimmy olsen]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Haven't you seen Die Hard IV? 

Yeah, but I didn't take anything that the hackers or anyone else did seriously. It wasn't exactly a serious kind of film.

Have you seen G-force?

Nope.

[Agelastus]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Haven't you seen Die Hard IV? 

Yeah, but I didn't take anything that the hackers or anyone else did seriously. It wasn't exactly a serious kind of film.

Have you seen G-force?

Battle of the Planets?  Kinda dated by today's standards.

I thought it was de rigueur these days to always add something along the lines of "The butchered-for-American-TV version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" whenever this was mentioned?

I remember enjoying it as a kid, although I suspect I may have seen parts of both versions (unless both English dubs used G-Force for the name of the team regardless of title? )

[Zanza]

It bothers me that this is even possible.

Why? Sounds like the system did exactly what it was meant to do. No system can ever be completely secured against humans misusing it. The only thing that went wrong in this story is that the perpetrator knew the password of his colleague.

[Caliga]

Agree.... and car dealers that cater to... uh... the 'bad element' need every weapon at their disposal to get their shit back in the likely event that their customers stop paying.