I just ran across this hack then I remembered a CSI: New York that revolved around a murder facilitated by hacking the gps then disabling the car in a 'bad' neighborhood, and setting off the alarms. Every device in your home that you can add to your network gives someone somewhere access to it.

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It worries the heck out of me too. Anything that can be programmed to provide safety can be abused maliciously, particularly by the people who are "authorized" to develop/use the code. What if someone decides it would be a fun prank to turn all the traffic lights green at the same time? The possibilities for malevolence are endless.

Sometimes the best solution is to simply unplug.

It seems as if the more we are technology driven, the more concern we should have of our safety.

I just read the story in my Popular Mechanics Magazine, what was not stated in the discussion posted at your link is that to complete this hack the researchers had a wireless laptop plugged in to the car's diagnostic port and sent commands from a second wireless laptop. With out the first laptop this is not possible as an auto doesn't have a wireless receiver ported to the ECM. Later---

Some things are best left mechanical. Technology is great, it can be extremely useful in many cases but engineers and developers need to remember "just because you can doesn't mean you should".

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