4 Things You Didn’t Know Could Be Hacked

At two big hacking conferences in Las Vegas over the summer, security pros revealed new vulnerabilities in daily items we never considered security risks. These events serve as annual displays of the latest hacking tricks.

At one of the conferences, called Black Hat, two researchers outlined how they hacked a Jeep from more than 10 miles away using a laptop. After Wired broke that story last month, Fiat Chrystler recalled 1.4 million vehicles due to hacking concerns.
1. Rifles

© Provided by MarketWatch 4 things you didn’t know could be hacked

The Austin, Texas-based company TrackingPoint makes auto-aiming rifles that increase a shooter’s accuracy and have Wi-Fi connectivity. Within the 100- to 150-feet range of the Wi-Fi and using a mobile phone, a hacker can compromise the weapon and change the target of the shooter, says Runa Sandvik, one of the researchers who presented at the annual hacker gathering Def Con last week.
In a demonstration for Wired, Sandvik and a research partner finagled with a rifle’s software to shift aim 2.5 feet to the left, hitting a different target.
The company posted a notice on its website in response to the Wired article, saying that it is working with the researchers and will offer a software update if one is warranted. Until then, the note says, you can continue using the Wi-Fi intended for downloading photos, among other functionality, “if you are confident no hackers are within 100 feet.”
Sandvik says the Wi-Fi must be turned on to hack into the rifle and manipulate the target, and attackers cannot force the rifle to fire remotely, though they could unlock the trigger. Plus, she added, researchers have in the past found ways to boost Wi-Fi signals from other devices and stretch connectivity to longer distances.
“A successful attacker could cause the rifle to misbehave on every single shot without the shooter knowing how or why,” Sandvik told MarketWatch. “The short version here is that you cannot underestimate a motivated attacker.”
2. Electronic skateboards

© YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images A girl rides an electric skateboard in Brazil

Electric skateboards can make your ride smoother — until the board no longer listens to your controls and throws you off. Two researchers developed a hack they dubbed “FacePlant,” which gave them total control over digital skateboards by manipulating the Bluetooth connection.
An attacker could force the skateboard to connect to a laptop and then stop the board, alter its direction or disable its brakes. The hackers conducted their research with a $1,500 board made by Boosted, a Mountain View, Calif.-based company, and a $700 to $1,000 board from the Australian firm Revo and a $700 board by China’s Yuneec.
“It’s easy to point to this and say, oh it’s just a skateboard,” Richo Healey, a security engineer at the payments company Stripe, told Wired. “But for people who are buying these boards and commuting on them every day … there is risk obviously associated with that.”
3. Death records

© Corbis Funeral casket

It’s pretty simple to kill someone off — at least on paper — Chris Rock, chief executive officer and founder of the security company Kustodian, showed in a presentation at Def Con. Using information found online, anyone can complete state electronic death records, Rock found, and then register to become a funeral director online to complete a certificate of death.
Why kill someone off officially, but not physically? For revenge against an ex-partner or a jerk boss, according to Rock’s presentation, or to enjoy the insurance benefits or access elderly parents’ estates.
He also found that it’s simple to game birth records in a similar manner and create spare identities to commit crimes, and “be like a cat and have nine lives.”
4. Teslas

© Lucy Nicholson/Reuters All-wheel-drive versions of the Tesla Model S car are lined up for test drives in Hawthorne, California.

We already know that the modern car is like a smartphone on wheels in that it’s susceptible to hack attacks like any other connected device. Part of the problem is that car makers haven’t always been considered technology companies, and are now being forced to figure out how to lock down infotainment and other systems to protect drivers from potential hacking threats.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors  , though, is closer to a technology company than most other auto makers, says Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer at the San Francisco-based mobile security firm Lookout. He and a research partner from another company set out to see whether its security would be any better, and if they could hack into controls like the steering and brakes on a Tesla Model S by cracking the infotainment system.
What they found: Teslas are, in fact, built with more security in mind than the average vehicle. But they also found several vulnerabilities, and were able to remotely open and close trunks, lock and unlock doors and stop a Tesla, depending on what speed it was being driven at.
The researchers worked with Tesla, and Tesla automatically pushed an update to all the cars so drivers could patch the vulnerabilities within one to two weeks — unlike other car companies, which have had to issue recalls on vehicles with security flaws.

(Source:- http://www.geekboy.co/hacking/4-things-you-didnt-know-could-be-hacked/)