Smart Cars and Big Brother (featuring The Fast & The Furious)

Since we had Tesla revolutionise the automobile industry, cars have been getting smarter. You actually get apps which can 'Summon' your car and it drives up to you, just by pressing a button on an app. To see what I am talking about, have a look at the video below.




Impressive, right? It's a smart car, and an insanely smart one at that! What could possibly go wrong? Well, a lot!


Recently, WikiLeaks published Vault7, a set of confidential documents which talk about CIA's programs centering around a substantial set of hackers who target consumer product companies with malware, viruses, trojans and what-have-you which would effectively convert your daily use appliances into covert hearing devices, which could be used to spy on target individuals.

1984, anybody?

LINK           : https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/

WIKI LINK : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_7

Excerpts from the WikiLeaks site below

"Year Zero", which is part 1 of the series, introduces the scope and direction of the CIA's global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of "zero day" weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones

The attack against Samsung smart TVs was developed in cooperation with the United Kingdom's MI5/BTSS. After infestation, Weeping Angel places the target TV in a 'Fake-Off' mode, so that the owner falsely believes the TV is off when it is on. In 'Fake-Off' mode the TV operates as a bug, recording conversations in the room and sending them over the Internet to a covert CIA server.

The CIA's Mobile Devices Branch (MDB) developed numerous attacks to remotely hack and control popular smart phones. Infected phones can be instructed to send the CIA the user's geolocation, audio and text communications as well as covertly activate the phone's camera and microphone.

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.


Wait! What was that last paragraph again? Infecting vehicle control systems!!
Sounds fun, doesn't it?

And what's more fun is the fact that the latest Fast and Furious instalment, The Fate of the Furious, runs you through a demo version of the mayhem wrecked with smart cars being controlled by a car hacking mastermind (named Cipher, no less) . It might have sounded like a implausible, almost laughable plot, a couple of weeks back, but with the WikiLeaks expose, things suddenly look a lot grimmer!! Have a look at the trailer below.





The cars don't look too smart now, do they??