Week 7
I was reading about a grey hat hacking on the NPR website. The Internet of things refers to common, everyday items that send and receive data such as thermostats, coffee pots and security cameras and baby monitors that are connected to the internet. They don’t have the type of security that our phones and computers do. There is a hacker named Samy Kamkar who did time for hacking MySpace with a computer worm. He is now hacking other items, such as phones, cars and drones. He is a grey hat hacker, not good, not bad, somewhere in the middle and he’s exposing the vulnerabilities of internet connected everyday items. (https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2018/02/23/583682220/this-gray-hat-hacker-breaks-into-your-car-to-prove-a-point)
I found this article https://www.wired.com/2015/05/feds-say-banned-researcher-commandeered-plane/ about a security researcher named Chris Roberts tried to tell Boeing and Airbus he has found a way to hack into their airplanes control system by using the Seat Electronic System. When he tweeted about it, he was arrested. He later denied he had done anything.
Here is an article about hackers that exposed security vulnerabilities getting sued by the companies they exposed. http://www.zdnet.com/article/chilling-effect-lawsuits-threaten-security-research-need-it-most/
On the NPR website, there is a link to a YouTube video about SkyJack – an autonomous drone hacking program. If someone is flying a drone, that drone can look for other drones and when it finds one, send out a signal that cuts of the drone’s signal and captures it so that the person using SkyJack can now control the other drone.
This made me think about the summer wildfires. When curious onlookers or news media are flying their drones to capture video and images of the devastating wildfires, the helicopters and air planes can’t safely do their job. In situations like these, where aircraft must be grounded, it would be useful for the fire departments or police to have such a drone. The drone could ground the other drones and then ground itself then aircraft was arriving with water or fire retardant and then as soon as was safe, hit the skies again, looking for nuisance drones. But you don’t want those programs getting into the wrong hands. The last thing we need is an army of hacked drones or hacked cars causing damage.
Kelly Nair's Security Blog 