On 3/21/2010 10:21 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I saw this on an auto newsgroup and fund it interesting.


And dangerous too!

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...r-bricks-cars/

The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to
repossessing vehicles that haven't been paid for. Operated by
Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets car dealers install a
small black box under vehicle dashboards that responds to commands issued
through a central website, and relayed over a wireless pager network. The
dealer can disable a car's ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin
honking, as a reminder that a payment is due. The system will not stop a
running vehicle.

Texas Auto Center began fielding complaints from baffled customers the last
week in February, many of whom wound up missing work, calling tow trucks or
disconnecting their batteries to stop the honking. The troubles stopped
five days later, when Texas Auto Center reset the Webtech Plus passwords
for all its employee accounts, says Garcia. Then police obtained access
logs from Pay Technologies, and traced the saboteur's IP address to
Ramos-Lopez's AT&T internet service, according to a police affidavit filed
in the case.

Understand your concerns about privacy but this isn't a car dealer.

It is one of those places that are set up to serve people in the "new
economy" much like the "rent-a-center" places.

In this case they are giving someone a car and they employ a method to
remotely disable the car if they haven't been paid. My niece worked at
one of those places for a while. She said they are totally upfront about
the use of the device.

But it does point out how utterly and completely clueless most are about
security. The first thing the rental place should have done when they
threw the guy under the bus is reset all of the passwords.