Researchers Hacked CA Digital License Plates, Gaining GPS Location and User Info

jalopnik.com

4 points·danboarder··4 comments

No way! I never imagined this could happen. I distinctly remember reading about this when they first came out years ago and thinking "goodness, I can't think of a single problem with computerizing the primary means of visually identifying a specific vehicle."

Something else that'll never happen: criminals hacking these things to immediately change the number right after committing a crime. It's surely not possible.

What on earth is the use case for digital license plates?

From the article:

> The bug also allowed the researchers to update the status of any digital CA plate to “STOLEN,” which could alert police and possibly send them after a car falsely labeled as the object of theft.

It's like the old James Bond gag where the license plate rotates. Like this guy did:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6918263/Man-arreste...

Sure, I can think of plenty of movie/cartoon uses for it. But I mean, what's the legal, rational use case?

If I report my car stolen and the police care, they can put the license # into a computer and then (in theory) have it be detected by traffic cameras/police car dashcams. An E-ink license plate seems like a solution in search of a problem.

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