Yet again, the street finds its own use for things – even the things installed by The Man to make the street safe. Students in Maryland in the US have hit upon the idea of making up fake license plates for their cars which match those of someone on whom they wish to exact a bit of revenge, and then driving past the automatic speed cameras in the area at high speeds. End result? The unsuspecting victim is automatically sent a ticket for speeding, even though they didn’t do it. [via SlashDot]
Of course, we Brits have our own version of the same system, but over here people clone the plates of similar vehicles for the purpose of avoiding their own fines; they’re not so bothered about who ends up paying them, so long as it’s not them.
Remember, folks: state-owned automated surveillance systems. If you’ve done nothing wrong, then you’re perfectly safe.
Well, mostly. [image by 91RS]
Living in a small city like mine, it’s not often one gets to feel that one is at the cutting edge of an emerging future society.
Former FBI agent and current ACLU lawyer Michael German shares some insights into the mentality behind the arrests of journos and other mostly harmless people at some shindig or other that was going on in St. Paul, MN this week.
Everything can and will be hacked; once you have the motivation sussed, the exploits will be close behind.