Thursday, June 27, 2013

Can your automobile be remotely hacked?

Hi, John,
Please share the following on your Nesaranews Blog:

Like everybody else, I learned from the news reports about the recent passing of journalist Michael Hastings in a car crash. There are people who speculate that the car could have been remotely controlled by other parties at the time of crash. I would like to offer my own story to show that it is possible.

A few years ago, I wrote a few posts on several Internet blogs about my discovery of discrepancies in official 9/11 stories. Shortly after, I noticed that everytime I drove around different towns, there were apparent higher probabilities to encounter police cars. This happened even during my vacation out of my home state. I wondered what was going on. As this phenomenon continued for many months, I started to suspect that there was a GPS tracker in my vehicle. I did some research online and bought a "Frequency Counter" which can detect both analog and digital wireless signals up to 2.8 GHz, a range which covers most of the commercal mobile phone frequency bands.

Wow, this was very sensitive piece of equipment: it can detect cell phone signals more than 20 feet away. As I drove around the town with it in my car, a 2008 Honda without any premium pacakge, the RF Frequency Counter buzzed as I passed a Utility truck and a cell tower. How could I be sure that any signal picked up by this device was originated from my car, presumably from a GPS tracker, given the abundant external "noise"? One day I noticed a short-buzz when I shifted the automatic gear of my car from "P" to "D". Then when I shfted the gear from "D" to "P", the "Frequency Counter" detects another very short burst of signals at the same frequency range -- about 2.4 GHz. I drove to a different location, and it gave me the same readings: the wireless signals were sent when I shifted the gears.

At that time, I was aware of the debate about whether attaching a GPS tracker to a car amounts to legally defined "search", which supposedly required a court issued warrant. However, in that particular case under review by the US suprem court, the GPS tracker was attached externally to the bottom of the car. However, in my case, given the fact that gear shifting triggers the signal transmitter, the presumed GPS tracker must have been attached to the transmission control unit (TCU), and ultimately the onboard vehicle computer system. ( I am not a car technician so I only hypothesize here.) Or in other words, the GPS tracker has become a part of the vehicle electric control system.

On January 23, 2012, the US Supreme court ruled that court issued warrants were required in the GPS tracking case. I took out the "Frequency Counter" and found that those signals were no longer present when I shifted gears. But after two more weeks, the signals came back -- the short burst of wireless signals were detected again everytime I shifted the gear from "P" to "D" or from "D" to "P". From this observation, I hypothesized that it was possible to turn the GPS tracker on or off remotely.

Now, thanks to Ed Snowden, we know that our phone calls, emails, and online activities are collected, permanently stored and probably searched. It might not be news for you if your car is also gps-tracked. Even today, I am still not sure how the device got into my car, factory installed or through unauthorized access to my car. If you want to do some research to find out, then check out the following page
http://www.disclosurebypeople.com/?page_id=61

No matter whether you want to purchase a "frequency counter" or other similar devices to detect the RF the signals, make sure that you get one that can detect DIGITAL signals since most of the commercial wireless providers are using digital technologies nowadays. And learn about wireless signals since you will need such knowledge in the future.

As to Michael Hastings' car crash, if his car was indeed remotely hacked, then there has to be digital fingerprints, such as wireless communication signals through cell towers or satellites, left to be discovered.
Thanks,
JitL

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