Remote-based app exposed thousands of vehicles to hackers
San Francisco: A hacker who goes by the handle Jmaxxz has exposed a series of vulnerabilities in a remote-based automobile app that may have exposed around 60,000 cars to hackers.
In a talk at the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, Jmaxxz identified several issues in a system called “MyCar” — developed by Canadian company Automobility, Wired reported.
Based on a scan of MyCar’s exposed database, Jmaxxz estimates that there were roughly 60,000 cars left open to theft by security bugs, with enough exposed data for a hacker to even choose the make and model of the car they wanted to steal.
MyCar’s devices and apps connect to radio-based remote start devices like Fortin, CodeAlarm and Flashlogic using GPS and a cellular connection to extend their range using an Internet connection.
Jmaxxz claims that the danger of these glitches are beyond theft or remote alarm-triggering pranks.
Remotely starting a car without the owner’s knowledge could lead to dangerous carbon monoxide leaks which could be fatally dangerous.
Addressing the matter, MyCar’s parent company has said that all the resources at their disposal have been used to promptly address the situation, the report added. (IANS)
Versace apologies in flap over T-shirts sold in China
Beijing: Italian fashion house Versace has apologized in China for selling T-shirts that it said attached incorrect country names to cities, after a Chinese actress said the clothing was suspected of harming the country’s territorial integrity and cut her ties with the company.
Versace did not identify the T-shirt in a social media post Sunday, but Chinese media said the item did not list Hong Kong and Macao as parts of China.
Both former European colonies were returned to China in the late 1990s.
The studio for actress Yang Mi said in an earlier social media post that it had sent a termination notice and stopped all cooperation with Versace.
The luxury house said the shirts had been removed from all sales channels on July 24 and destroyed. (AP)