Israeli companies have developed and are selling advanced cyber tools that can hack into the tech of your car and use it to collect intelligence on you.
Three years ago, Haaretz revealed the existence of the offensive cyber intelligence company Toka, which was co-founded by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and a former Israel Defense Forces cyber chief, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yaron Rosen. The firm specialized in hacking into security cameras, but as documents obtained by Haaretz at the time revealed, Toka also had a product called CARINT that fused camera data with data linked to cars.
At the time, the industry was in its infancy. But industry sources say that Toka has since expanded its offering on cars. It has developed and even sold a product capable of hacking into a specific vehicle’s multimedia systems, pinpointing its location and tracking its movements; that is, a specific model by a specific manufacturer. The technology can even remotely access the microphone of the vehicle’s hands-free system, allowing eavesdropping on the driver, and even tap into cameras installed on the dashboard or around the car.
Every day I feel more justified in keeping my 1990s car running.
(I’d also like to walk or take public transit, but the infrastructure here is car dependent)
My 2007 Tundra? I think not.
Crazy Ehud Barak the same guy who allegedly trained Epstein as a Mossad spy and lived with him for five years? What a coincidence
Fuck cars. I’m car free and glad to be. My bike doesn’t spy on me. And I don’t really fancy getting an e-bike that requires an app just to work. The only thing spying on me is my Android phone.
100%. If you can bike, that’s both good for your health, AND reduces surveillance.
We need to push for better bikability especially here in North America. Fortunately my city is good, but so many others are not. Especially for older people who may not be comfortable mixing it up with cars if they bike.
Of course also now Flock cameras are everywhere, who watch bikes as well as cars. There is no plate on a bicycle, but I have seen allegations they can perform biometric ID of pedestrians and cyclists.
I love my dumb ebike. It’s so much easier to maintain and I know what all the technology does.
Now’s a good time to remove any sim cards attached to your vehicle/infotainment center. They can track it as easily as cell phones.
The sim just holds your subscriber number. I would assume any car with any ability to reach the outside world to be vulnerable, whether it has a sim in it or not, and regardless of whether that connection’s with a cellular radio, WiFi, satellite or other
I wonder if they can hack into millions of cellphones and get them to self detonate using the battery as the explosive material? Is that possible, just wipe out out millions of people just like that? If they could they would.
Likely not. The beeper terrorist attack had a special explosive planted. Phone batteries can overheat but not explode rapidly.
Now as for car batteries I’m not sure. Maybe they can make them explode or catch fire while locking the car doors.
Or it can cause the car to get out of control and crash, assassination perfectly looking like an accident.
Are we planning to assassinate somebody? With a car battery? And if you want the car to veer off course, then it’s the brake pedal you’ll want removed. But in newer cars there’s a function that if you take your foot off the gas pedal it’ll just slow down like you’re braking. And there’s this one car that if somebody is having a stroke while they’re driving it’ll go autopilot mode and pull to the curb and call for emergency assistance. I saw it at this automobile convention that I went to last year. The North American International Auto Show in Detroit, up by Huntington Place, I think. It was amazing. Never really been into cars, but I went anyway.
You don’t need to worry about that, lead acid is a really stable and safe battery. If you wanna get a handful of extra years out of your batteries, buy the ones with removable caps and keep the water topped up.
If they weren’t so heavy and energy sparse they’d be great for all kinds of stuff.
My car is from 2015
Nah, my car is old enough that it has a CD player, it’s not spying on shit.
When my car’s radio system completely busted over a year ago, I wasn’t in a rush to replace it. To replace it with the same original radio would’ve cost over $3000. Meanwhile, all the car radios I saw in stores were touch screen - I refuse to buy those. So I’ve simply gone without.
But the radio/infotainment was connected to other systems, including the back-up camera and clock. I can’t change the time and I need to look out the windows/windshields to back up. I take some solace in knowing that despite those minor set-backs, at least I don’t have to worry about my car’s radio system being a little snitch.
at least I don’t have to worry about my car’s radio system being a little snitch
I feel your pain. It’s nearly impossible now to buy a disconnected car, and over time, pre-connectivity cars will become old and less reliable.
I need to look out the windows/windshields to back up.
Which is getting harder on some models of hatchback where it’s difficult to see out the rear window. My car is like that. My old car was a 4 dr sedan and you could easily see behind. In my new car I would not feel safe backing up without the camera due to how bad the rear visibility is. Especially in parking lots with the risk that a child below window level had run out from somewhere into my blind spot. That’s what keeps me tethered to my backup camera - the fear of hitting another person I couldn’t see. Otherwise I would do exactly what you are doing.
I bike whenever I can, but sometimes, I must drive.
Another problem is that on some newer cars, the “little snitch” part of the car is the same subsystem as other features of the car you need, like the directional blinkers. You rip out the snitching part, and you also lose safety features you need legally and ethically.
I hate this. All of this. I hate that the default for so many devices now, not just cars, is surveillance.
I know it’s nontrivial, but kit cars are a thing. If they won’t make the car you want, build it.
Please verify the process to make it street legal before buying the kit, though. Don’t want to end up with a car-sized paperweight.
We have eCall in the EU so that lads from Brussels can spy on us in our cars.
