No fucking shit
this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
271 points (97.5% liked)
Technology
82000 readers
3540 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Some white hat hackers took control of a Jeep Grand Cherokee’s brakes and throttle remotely, like 8 years ago. The only reason to have WiFi or cell service on a vehicle is to let the government kill you lol
Edit: it was ELEVEN years ago
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
There was also an investigative reporter driving a Mercedes who died in an odd accident in SoCal in and around then. It was suspicious, but swept away quickly in the news. I remember believing that he was murdered.
Edit: It was Michael Hastings. He had discredited General McChrystal which resulted in his resignation (The Runaway General). "His last story, "Why Democrats Love to Spy On Americans", was published by BuzzFeed on June 7, 2013." I love how Wikipedia mentions that his body tested positive for marijuana and methamphetamine, but leaves out that the coroner stated that it did not contribute to the crash. And of course the LAPD stating there was no foul play. Case closed!
I think a similar thing happened to an investigative journalist in DC
Remote hacking infotainment stuff is one thing, but if actual vehicle controls aren't air-gapped, someone seriously fucked up. All vehicle controls should be strictly local.
They should be, of course- but in more than one case they are not
I think many vehicles still use the old CAN bus that just wasn't setup with external connectivity in mind. It's well known that even premium brands often reuse all the same components.
I've heard that Tesla were the first to replace this with something closer to a modern network in the cybertruck, of all things.
Oh yea, I loved that white paper that came out for that because it gave me what I needed to "jailbreak" my old Jeep's u connect and mod the shit out of it lol
load more comments
(1 replies)
Still... after more than a decade where some Wired article published the exact same fucking statement about being able to break a moving vehicle and take control of steering. This is old news.
Is anyone actually surprised by this? It's one of those things that any semi-competent programmer could have told you would be the case. The study just formalizes it and adds specifics.
if it’s a computer, it can be hacked
if it’s connected to the internet, it doubly can be hacked!
If it can be physically connected to, oh boy...
The only secure computer is the one you're holding the power cord you just yanked out of the back of it, and even then it's only temporarily secure.
Shocker.
Laughs in old, primitive, disconnected, paid for car
I'm sure that soon it will be illegal to drive a car that isn't connected.
Only drug dealers and child predators have a need for an untracked car /s
While I'm not surprised, it's important that empirical research be done and published. It's needed to bolster calls for regulation. Not that I, for one second, think we'll get any meaningful regulation out of this in most countries.
Our best bet, as always, is to limit our technologies' access to the internet as much as we can tolerate. Cars, doorbells, and refrigerators have no business connecting to the internet at all.
I’m heavily conflicted …. I agree, but I really want to not need to agree. A door bell connected to the internet is extremely useful. Current implementations are a nightmare though.
But if it could be secure, private, and the technology actually served the individual in physical proximity “owner” it would be awesome!
I had a car with its own internet connection for a while, I could check my windows were rolled up from my phone, start it from anywhere, get alerts on fuel levels or oil change intervals…. BUT telemetry was used in evil ways against me.
A connected fridge that didn’t spy on you, show ads, or be designed to fail could be really useful. But we know the “business” behind this makes it consumer hostile.
Heck, my washer and dryer wanted to connect to WiFi and it COULD be useful to get an alert on your phone when it’s done but you’re not in its immediate proximity. But we all know giving this thing internet will be a net loss no matter what.
Smart tvs could be neat in concept, but we all know they’re little corporate spys. Watch out for these, especially Roku is apparently requiring internet connectivity for initial setup. Oh, and this is the company that’s got a patent to identify when an hdmi input is paused so they can inject ads.
I’m sad because technology is so cool and should have served us to make life easier. Instead, it has killed the joy. FOSS is helping revive the passion in technology.
So many things should be possible, but “people” went and ruined it for everyone.
load more comments
(1 replies)
They will make it illegal to remove it from the internet, I think it long has been illegal to remove the onstar and that was a long time ago, but not sure it's been 20 years since I think I learned that after seeing a sopranos episode where they paid someone to remove it from their new car.
I think it long has been illegal to remove the onstar
Oh yeah? What law would that possibly break?
I think I learned that after seeing a sopranos episode
Oh, never mind.
Remotely enabling heating/cooling of my car so it's ready when I get to it is just so god damn nice. This is only possible with internet connection, if it's limited by keyfob range to the vehicle then it may as well not exist.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I mean, yeah? You give anything a connection to a global network with billions of people, and there will always be a chance for it to be exploited. Hell, even my personal OpenVPN instance for remotely accessing my home servers has to fend off attacks.
This is why my next vehicle will be a slate truck. Zero internet connectivity by default, and updates can be done via USB-C from a phone (which can be vetted as needed).
The whole internet of things was a mistake. I say that as one of the biggest tech enthusiasts I know.
Secure software is mathematically possible, but secure engineering is mathematically improbable.
Internet of Things is a terrible no good idea, but Intranet of Things has some potential. Entirely local mesh networks like Zigbee and Z-wave solve most of your problems, doubly so if you properly confine their controllers into their own non Internet routable subnets.
It's honestly my biggest complaint with the Matter standard, it has Internet bridging baked into the design while the prior standards made that completely optional.
Parts of Iot are great, but not the whole "smart home sending multiple video and microphone feeds to Amazon/Google/Facebook" thing.
The ability to set up remote sensors on critical infrastructure to give early alerts is a benefit.
And it can be done without a cloud connection.
load more comments
(1 replies)
And non connected cars too.
And water is wet.
WHAT!!???!!
I seriously need a GrapheneMobile
I truly don’t understand why the infotainment systems in vehicles aren’t air-gapped from the systems that run the vehicle.
Because the infotainment panel is also used to manage features in the car that need to be controlled by the vehicles main controller, e.g. ESC enable/disable, auto start/stop of the engine, park assist systems etc.
It is not a necessary design element of a car to have a single touchscreen to control the car. It is a willful bad choice.
It is entirely possibly to have a car who's main driving components are air gapped from the windows, ac, radio, locks, etc. It just isn't done for a lot of modern cars.
load more comments
(7 replies)
So use a different panel/controls for that. I should not be able to start a car from a USB port or Bluetooth EVER, no matter how locked down the system is. Nothing with that sort of connectivity should come anywhere near the engine.
Yes they could do that, they choose not to probably to save cost. I'm just explaining to you why it is that way in cars available, not that it can only be that way.
They were hacking cars with any kind of computer in them and even able to remotely control some newer models at the time when I was in high school. 20 years down the road, car makers have not done anything to improve security against such hacks, and also have added more computerization.
A car is pretty much the last thing you'd want to have a network connection. I'd sooner hook up my refrigerator and let it send analytics data to Frigidaire.
Egads! Evildoers?! On MY Internet??? But how am I supposed to know when my car's seats are filled with too many farts if it doesn't have the potential to send a tweet??
anything connected will be hacked eventually
From what I've been reading, not only is this the least of what hackers can do, but it's with any new vehicles. The CIA developed all sorts of hacking tools for cars I hear tell, that were revealed in the snowden leaks, and that was 15 years ago, that they can take control of the gas, brakes, and steering regardless of your controlls in the vehicle.
It's not just academic either, 60 minutes a few years ago got a new vehicle in a parking lot and paid a hacker to take control in a parking lot and he got it to disregard their steering and braking and gas pedal.
There are a couple of suspicious deaths people think are from hacked vehicles causing accidents, Guiffre in Australia is one.
I mean yeah, thought this was common knowledge by now tbh...
Water is wet, research finds.
So many issues with tech can be traced to crappy software where I'm not even sure there should be software to begin with. Vehicle manufacturers come out with many models and trims with different equipment, I don't have a lot of faith their software people can keep up with the complexity and changes of all that, especially when you factor in all their suppliers and the fact they make new/updated models every year.
If it beep-boops we can hack it
I first found out about this from Game Theory
It's been ingrained in my head, along with mobile games are designed to addict
view more: next ›