The CIA has considered developing technology to hack the driving systems of road vehicles including cars and trucks, according to a WikiLeaks dump of agency documents released earlier today.
From WikiLeaks’ press release:
As of October 2014 the CIA was also looking at infecting the vehicle control systems used by modern cars and trucks. The purpose of such control is not specified, but it would permit the CIA to engage in nearly undetectable assassinations.
CIA meeting notes from 2014 show that the agency’s Embedded Devices Branch (EDB) was looking at “vehicle systems (e.g VSEP)” as a “potential mission area.”
This appears to have been part of a wider effort on the part of the CIA to take control of the “internet things” — a term used in the technology community to refer to the growing connectivity of physical devices through the internet.
The meeting notes specifically notes “the internet of things” as another potential EDB mission area.
The CIA has also successfully breached Samsung’s Smart TVs, and now has the ability to covertly switch on the Smart TVs’ microphones to monitor nearby audio, even when the devices are switched off.
Of course, didn’t they also want to put chemicals in Castro’s shoes to make his beard fall off?
If you own a Samsung TV, congratulations. You have a TV that’s smarter than you are.
I wonder if Bin Laden was watching porn on a Smart TV?
This story reminds me of Orwell’s 1984, with its telescreens and hidden microphones designed to spy on the citizens. But Orwell never dreamed that in addition to telescreens, everyone would also have handheld devices that could monitor conversations and communications as well as point out the location of the owner. And Orwell probably never assumed that the citizens being monitored would voluntarily purchase these devices and willingly carry them around, or willingly participate in data gathering activities (whether they know it or not).
The tin foil hats are obsolete, and I retired mine a long time ago. If anything can be attached to a centralized information system, it can hacked – I have gone through enough credit cards in the past two years to attest to this. And the technology to hack into a vehicle and control it is apparently real – a couple of years ago Ram had to recall trucks and install a software patch to prevent this.
The internet and smart technologies are technological wonders and an overall boon to society. However, like anything else they have their dark sides, and some of these dark sides are severe.
This tech one of the reasons TPTB are pushing “smart” guns. You can bet your last worthless dollar that any such guns will be remotely controllable even if they are “certified” to be immune to that.
Maybe those ‘smart phone’ batteries that are exploding in flames
are just the CIA fine-tuning its weapons testing.
Hasn’t the CIA already proven they can control a car? Remember Michael Hastings?!
As the General said, all our devices are hackable/remotely controllable. By design, with full manufacturer cooperation.
The more often the public is reminded, the better.
Obama acknowledged having a WH “kill switch” for the internet.
The electric grid can also be shut down in sections, by region, city, street or neighborhood.
A Leftist regime could shut down the unfriendly irredeemable Red states.