Disgruntled auto salesman bricks cars with remote kill-switch
By Sean Hollister 
posted March 18th 2010 6:15AM
posted March 18th 2010 6:15AM
Over the years, a number of optional technologies have allowed new auto buyers to remotely disable and / or recover their vehicles after purchase, but these devices aren't always optional, and it might not even be the buyer who activates them. According to Threat Level, a man has been charged in Austin, Texas for allegedly hacking into the computer of his employer, Texas Auto Center, and activating WebTeck remote horn triggers and kill devices installed in over 100 cars owned by the company's customers -- all from the comfort of home. After Texas Auto Center reset the offending software's passwords and figured out what's what, the Austin High Tech Crime Unit quickly traced access back to one Omar Ramos-Lopez and made an arrest -- but for many, the damage (in terms of missed work, school and tow-truck calls) had already been done. Care to form an opinion? Read more about the crime, and WebTeck, at our source links.
Bicycle/Public Transportation.
@Chazwell LOL, epic WIN!
Omar!!!!!!!!
Ramos-Lopez!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ha ha ha this is hilarious don't get me wrong hated it happen to me I would be heated but since it didn't hilarious
@Jean Marc
I'm not quite up there with hilarious but I reckon it's pretty funny so I'm going to hang with you in case they come after us with clubs we'll have a crew
@Cy Starkman I chuckled as well.
A feature coming soon to an Apple product near you. Just kidding...
@fpad77 O.o I thought iPhones already had that feature!
@SlimSpaceman They do, and so does every phone. Call your provider, they turn it off.
@fpad77
kill cars? There's and app for that hahaha
@fpad77 wow, you managed to throw in an Apple comment on an article about cars? tip of the hat to you, my friend.
Mel Farr's cousin.
Creepy how i only just 2 minutes ago read this at techdirt,
You people are quick
(yaaay first post of a long time reader)
@Jordo1234
And out of all Engadget's stories where you were a silent reader, you chose this one for your first comment?
@Jordo1234
... nope!
@TareG
Welll i really didnt want to comment on anything containing
MS Fanboys, apple fanboys or Google fanboys to be honest
I dislike them all ^^ fanboys that is, i have no preference over what i use :3
@Jordo1234 - Interesting post to pick as your first one to comment on.
@Jordo1234
You just turned the comment section into one lol. How dare you call us *beep* *beep* freakin' *beep*
Anyway, welcome :D
Meh...I think he just got lucky. If he REALLY knew what he was doing he would've been behind 7 proxies.
In other words -
He wouldn't have been caught if he actually knew how to crack a system..
@Gamecheater
Hell, he could have just gone to his local burger king and hacked from there.
@DrSammyD
Or he could've just used some other public wifi.
Seriously, he didn't delete the logs of him accessing it so they had his IP, they found which ISP the IP address belonged to, and asked them for the address information so they could arrest him.
McDonalds/Starbucks/Burger King free wifi could've saved him from jail.
@Gamecheater
yeah i wouldnt call it hacking, he used his co-workers password. thats about it.
@domopod
For the most part, tech-savvy people (and I would assume you are one as you frequent this site) know that hacking usually takes a lot of work and know-how. But at it's base, hacking is simply unauthorized access. It's like going into an unlocked door will make you a burglar/trespasser, even though you didn't whip out your trusty lock picks.
Are these disable if you don't pay cars common?
@WinYourMom7
.. wait what?
@WinYourMom7 - You don't pay what? Car common?
@MRCUR i think he means: Are these Disable-when-not-payed-cars common?
@fuckoff yeah that looks like what he was going for. I've never heard of them doing this till now, and now that I have I'm wondering how long it will take someone affected by this to sue.... Do they remove the device if you don't get a loan through the dealership?
@fuckoff
It's being tried out in a couple of markets. Miss your car payment and they shut you off until you pay up. It's created a lot of angry people so far and a few have taken it to court. The judge told them to pay their bills and dismissed the cases.
Why does this story look like it was lifted from this story... slightly altered...and without attribution. Kevin (who hails from San Fran) steals again?
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/hacker-shut-down-100-cars-remotely
Once a thief, always a thief, eh, Kevin?
@wxrman
This is how all news is.
@wxrman Was he supposed to make up some stuff? How about adding a rabid pitbull somewhere into the story? Would that be different enough from the iniitial set of known facts?
Used car lots have been installing these remote kill switches for yearsl... they even charge you around $150 on top of the price of the car (they "getcha" with the upcharge while your signing papers)
When I bought my truck several years ago I refused to pay for the switch, then had it removed by my local garage. Frak those shady bastards.
Cheeky mofo! Very scary thought that my car might suddenlly cut out while doing 90mph on the motorway...
Theres a turd in the punch bowl
Dude that is freakin awesome! I wouldn't think so if it happened to me, but then again I drive a classic that has no computers, chips or devices of this sort so I am safe... Unless someone fires an EMP over America... Wait I don't live in America either!
@kobioshi Even if you drove a modern car, it wouldn't have this unless you're the kind of person that can't afford an 89 Cavalier, and your credit is trash. So, you get a car from a really shady "buy here, pay here" lot (they're the only place that will give you credit,) they install this device, and you have to stop at the dealership weekly to pay, or they remote kill the car.
Go back and read the full original story. Ramos-Lopez only bricked the cars of Android owners. Apparently he was arrested clutching his iPhone.
It's startlingly awesome how far technology has come, isn't it?
This is not awesome at all to all you nubs praising the guy. I had a very familiar situation myself. Kill-switches have their pros and cons. Yeah it's good if your car gets stolen or something but when the dealership or some ass-hat tries to screw you, it's no fun at all. The dealership where I bought my car from activated the kill switch of my car right when I went 1 km over the mileage of my warranty. I WENT APE SHIT CRAZY on their assess and not one red cent came out of my pocket to fix anything. Pissed off just talking about it...lol
why should my car manufacturer have control over a car that i've already bought? doesn't that sound wrong?
i miss the good old days when stuff you bought became fully yours.
@Wiggy Fuzz It's a service provided to the owners to help retrieve stolen vehicles. GM can totally eff you over with OnStar too.
A computer virus pretty much accomplishes the same thing with your PC and/or Network.. that doesn't make it any less yours. It just makes you the victim of a crime.
@(Unverified)
No to what you said. Wiggy, you don't own something until it is completely paid for. At a "tote the note" place the car lot finances the note, so they own the car until you make your last payment. If you miss a payment, they throw the kill switch on THEIR car, not yours.
Unverified they install the kill switch only for missed payments, not for theft recovery. Although you can definitely use it for that.
okay so this guy was apparently fired and pissed at his boss.
But took it out on customers. I say Douche. Dumb Douche too it seems. cause he's got illegal entry into the computer system (which at it's core is hacking regardless of the entry method) and some kind of mischief charge but also a ton of civil suits waiting to happen over lost wages. and who knows, someone might be able to make some kind of terrorist act charge stick.
If he wanted to stick it to the ex bosses perhaps the better method would have been to kill switch the unsold cars, which likely had the switch in effect as a theft stop. then no one could sell any cars and would lose sales etc.
and yeah, with Mickey Ds and Starbucks etc having free wifi, dumb move to stay at home. heck a laptop and a car in the BK parking lot probably would have worked with no one to ID him. and no security cams to get a photo
I work at an Independent Auto Dealership and we install these at the request of finance companies. It doesn't affect you if you have good credit, but if your credit is lousy and you still need to buy a car then we can install one of these. If you don't make your payments the finance company can shut the vehicle down, and with ours locate it via gps, in order to repossess the vehicle.
I see this a more a lapse by the dealer than 'hacking' by the dude the did it. He was an employee that was fired, and the dealer didn't change the account he'd been using.
The guy definitely shouldn't have done it and should be penalized, but to call it a 'hacking' is a stretch. And to think he's facing a felony charge over it is amazing. Hopefully the don't parole any child molesters or rapists to make room in jail for this guy.
@technikal
This little scumbag should still go to jail for a long time!
This is HILARIOUS! I feel bad for the people whose cars got shut down, but not too bad (assuming no one got kicked out of school, fired, or died as a result).
hackers are nothing new in austin, we get away with a lot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTzfXYF6BPg
Good thing my car is so decrepit it doesn't have keyless entry! :)