car security
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Intel's working on a system to secure self-driving cars
The prospect of seeing self-driving cars on the highway someday soon came into even clearer focus earlier this week, when Google announced its work on an autonomous vehicle thats excludes a steering wheel and pedals. On the heels of that news, Intel is unveiling plans to support projects such as Google's, with a research initiative to explore how drivers interact with their cars and how to best protect connected vehicles from security threats. And the company's not just gathering data about drivers' habits; Intel's working on prototypes for improved in-car systems and even a hardware platform to protect "critical components." After all, few of us would step behind the wheel of a self-driving machine without safety measures in place to prevent it from being hacked and controlled remotely.
USB Electronic Key Impressioner could help you be gone in 60 milliseconds
If you're stealing a car these days, there's a good chance you're not bothering to actually pick the locks, but if you are, your job is about to get a little easier. A device called the Electronic Key Impressioner is inserted into a car door and scans the position of the tumblers inside. It feeds information back to a PC over USB which then, when told the car's model, can provide the necessary information to cut the perfect key on the first attempt. Right now it only works on Fords with simple metal keys (like, say, a 1967 Shelby GT500), but the hope is to expand the device to support other manufacturers and, possibly, electronic keys in the future. It will be available to locksmiths and authorized security professionals in 2010. Sorry, Nick, you'll have to find another way to get into Eleanor.
Seen at CES: Warlock vehicle security is overpowered
We knew there wouldn't be much of anything Warcraft-related at CES 2008 worthy of coverage here on WoW Insider, but we kept our eyes open as we scoured the show floor and had a chuckle to stumble upon the Warlock vehicle security systems booth. We don't even want to know what it does to any intruders it detects. If more gratuitous gadgetry is your thing, hit up our sister site Engadget for a literal metric ton of CES news (including the best of the worst).
