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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

Would love to see a regulatory requirement for a physical off switch for vehicle network connectivity. Probably won't happen though.

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The people that are responsible for writing a law like that want to make encryption illegal to make law enforcement easier, with no thought whatsoever to the obvious everyday security implications of doing so.

There’s no way they would remove remote control functions in cars, regardless of the safety implications for the drivers.

> There’s no way they would remove remote control functions in cars, regardless of the safety implications for the drivers.

I bet after we get the first terrorist act in history to reach millions of victims, they will. And then they will claim nobody could predict it.

"Nobody could predict it!!!"

https://medium.com/@mpesce/the-great-hack-part-one-attack-70...

;-)

> we get the first terrorist act in history to reach millions of victims,

Depends how you define reach.

I can't buy dynamite without a bunch of onerous license requirements thanks to a variety of 70s "activists". I can't buy a bunch of fertilizer without getting on a list because the FBI doesn't like when people make them crispy. I can't call overseas without the metadata being recorded in perpetuity by the NSA because some terrorists hijacked some planes. So a nation of 300+mil has already been "reached" by plenty of terrorists if you count putting up with not directly violent but inconvenient BS.

>I can't call overseas without the metadata being recorded in perpetuity by the NSA because some terrorists hijacked some planes.

Why would anyone call overseas (i.e., using voice service with a "phone number") in this day and age anyway? Anyone with half a brain knows to use chat apps and their voice-calling (or video-calling) functions to talk to their friends overseas.

Most banks, embassies, and other businesses do not have a zoom link you can call to take care of business.

Unless you're doing this for work which involves international relations, why would you ever need to call such places outside your own country? I live outside my home country and have never needed to make an international call.

Depends on what you’re doing and where you are. eg working in finance in Europe a /lot/ of your partners are international - and even though there are sometimes options other than PSTN, odds are your company will record conversations regardless of whether it’s on a desk phone or an app.

Again, you keep talking about work. I'm not talking about work, I'm talking about personal use. If companies want to waste money on per-minute international phone charges, that's their problem. Most regular people are smart enough to avoid this stupidity and use a chat app these days.

I've had to call the embassy for visa/passport issues. Also, I had to call for issues with an international bank account I had.

>I've had to call the embassy for visa/passport issues.

Why on earth would you do this? Your country's embassy is a local phone call, in whatever country you're in. Your embassy isn't in your home country, it's in the country you're now present in (geographically at least, but not legally, but the phone number is still a local number).

Also, this stuff can usually be handled online these days.

That depends massively on the countries concerned. US, UK and the like yes but for many countries even friendly ones the closest diplomatic mission is often in a nearby country, eg for Bangladesh it might be in Delhi, for NZ in Canberra. And by their nature they deal with a lot of things which aren't readily handled online.

Who said "zoom"?

We're talking secure!

ironically they just passed a law in the US that will require all new vehicles to have a remote kill switch added by the manufacturer https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/29/barr-bidens-infrastructur...

Really wonder how long it will take before you can't renew your vehicle registration unless your older vehicle has been "upgraded" to include such a kill switch?

I can't wait until some junior dev pushes a change to the system and shuts down all 2026+ vehicles, sorta like a nationwide "carmageddon" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_405_(California)#%2...).

Even if the devs don't accidentally flip the switch themselves, they'll screw up the implementation so some enterprising hacker will be able to do it.

The problem is that the power thirsty law makers aren't much different than hackers since they also want access to everything.

That or guides that walk you through the process of destroying wireless capabilities.

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