As we move farther and farther into the digital age, we begin to see some serious problems with an all-digital lifestyle. Take parking meters, for example. As much as a pain as it is to root under your car seat looking for loose change to feed the meter, there aren’t too many ways to avoid actually putting money into a traditional meter. (Or maybe there are. I haven’t bothered to investigate, since I don’t currently own a vehicle.) Newer electronic parking meters, though, can be pretty easily subverted, as demonstrated at the Black Hat conference this week.
I suppose “easily subverted” is a bit hyperbolic, since you need to be willing to buy a couple parking meters from eBay, own and know how to use an oscilloscope, and put together some custom circuit boards. Most of that puts this attack squarely outside of my abilities. Nonetheless, enterprising hackers have examined and found weaknesses in the electronic parking meters used around San Francisco. Pre-paid cards keep track of how many times they’ve been used, so most of the logic is in the card: when the number of uses exceeds the dollar value assigned to the card, it’s no longer valid. You have basically two choices: put a super high dollar value on the card, or simply ignore the meter’s instruction to record a new use. Either way the result is the same: you can park for free!
I suspect there are a number of easy ways for this attack to be foiled but they’ll all cost money, which means that the parking meter companies will be hesitant to implement them. And really, what was so wrong with the old fashioned meters that they needed to be digitized?
Via Hack-A-Day.
“What was so wrong with the old fashioned meters that they needed to be digitized?”
The answer… Coins.
They only took coins.
I personally don’t care cash nor coins.
There is no ‘looking under my seat to find them’ because they aren’t in my car at all.
Instead, I use a little plastic card.
I know I’m not the only one… with direct deposit, online banking, and Check Card/Debit Card/Credit Cards, more and more people don’t even touch cash.
Get a clue. They needed to be digitized so that money collectors dont have to go to every unit to collect the fees. Also, you ever try to put 10 dollars into a coin op parking meter. Dont knock advanments in technology if you dont even understand them.
Get a clue. Don’t try to knock somebody if you’re not willing to spell properly…lol
dont forget the main reason the cities go digital meters.
no meter collector reqired. cuts down on fraud by the meter collector.
and the city can lay off another american worker.
having u ever tried to use a coin op one in -20 weather? it doesnt work very well. a warm coin from your pocket sticks and freezes to the inner workings and wont register that you have paid the meter. i have experienced this more than once living in Alaska.
Well, your a tool if you dont carry cash. How do you buy pot? And I like having the meter maids usualy because there old and slow so its always fun to race them back to your car so you don’t get the ticket and drive off yelling HA HA HA. And you cant use the -20 objection becase thats your fault for being in Alaska. Glad I can clear the air.