I've Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/06/securitymatters_0626

by nreece • 18 years ago

42 17 18 years ago

wired.com

streety• 18 years ago

"Buses are getting the same capability [kill switches], in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed."

I may be wrong here put didn't the bus in speed blow up when it stopped?

jgrahamc• 18 years ago

Yes, that was the entire plot.

jcl• 18 years ago

I think streety's point is that -- assuming a terrorist tried to faithfully reenact Speed and assuming the authorities wanted to keep people from being blown up -- the bus would need a go-fasterswitch, not a killswitch.

coglethorpe• 18 years ago

Movie Exec: So, I didn't have time to read the script, what's the plot of this "Speed" movie you're looking to make.

Producer: If the bus stops, it blows up.

Movie Exec: That's it? The "Hey Verne Guy" movies had better plots than that! What the he...

Producer: We've got Keanu all set to star if we get sign off.

Movie Exec: OH! Why didn't you say so. I bet we can get 50mil for production.

Producer: Make it 60 and you're on.

bgutierrez2• 18 years ago

I think Schneier didn't actually see Speed. I haven't either, and from what I hear I'm better off without it.

imgabe• 18 years ago

I'd give it 1 month on the market, max, before someone hacks a way to spoof the signal from a supercontroller device, giving anyone with internet access a way to control all the devices they want, if they so desire.

pavelludiq• 18 years ago

Cool, imagine this, I type something in my phone, all the phones in school start ringing and vibrating and nobody can turn them off because the keyboards are blocked, everybody panics and takes off his battery. I start laughing and end up in the principals office. This is the most innocent use of this technology that i can think off. Here's another one. Terrorists kill a train in the middle of a tunnel and blow up 2 bombs at the two ends sucking all the air and suffocating all the people to death. Of course if the people survive the extreme change in pressure, if they don't, they won't care that they have no air to breathe. Cool. O, and lets not forget police taking control of your car, making it drive you to a secret location and torture you and make you confess that you are a communist/terrorist/liberal/hippie or something. Some of us learned the lessons of totalitarianism the hard way you know.

dmoney• 18 years ago

I don't think you'd need the kill switch for the train scenario.

bgutierrez2• 18 years ago

Agreed. Communications devices can't be distributed without also sharing their method of communication. This is why we all know the number 0x09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0 as the key to decrypting HD-DVD movies.

marvin• 18 years ago

Installing killswitches in our engines is a fucking stupid idea. Isn't the stereotype criminal hell-bent on pimping his automobiles? It will be a cakewalk for a determined criminal to install an older engine. Unless laws are put into place (and likely even then) engines without computers will always be available, and in the end only criminals and enthusiasts will have ungelded engines. Perhaps the effort will affect a few desperate black carjackers, but not a determined criminal.

Only bad can come of this. You can see the real motivation for this push by the fact that terroristm is used as a justification. But although bullshit like this is technologically possible, it's users and politicians (and in the end "the people") who determine whether technological features like these will become a curiosity or a straitjacket. Oppression stems from politics, not technology.

In the worst case we will have the problem of DRM all over again: A lot of average people screwed over, while people like us are able to steer clear.

tx• 18 years ago

Agreed. I am sticking to my car forever: just because it never locks my doors when it wants and doesn't bitch when I need to cover a distance of 10 yards without seatbelts.

Amazing, but it's a 2006 model, one of the last non-moronic vehicles.

ConradHex2• 18 years ago

I know what you mean about the "locking the doors" bit. Our minivan locked our toddler in once (he was in his carseat), and we had to call 911 and get the firemen to break in.

natch• 18 years ago

Forget about wild terrorist threats.

The important thing is that self updating features are a bad idea for any product, hardware or software, that might someday be the target of litigation.

I met the Slingbox founders at an EFF event once, and one of them told me that they deliberately left a self-updating capability out of the Slingbox, on the advice of an EFF lawyer.

musiciangames• 18 years ago

Putting aside the fact that any control mechanism will be broken, I've often thought that this would be handy in weapons.

Imagine the UN providing free quality weapons to poor but legitimate governments, but being able to disable them remotely should the government use them against its own people, or aggressively against a neighbour.

I've Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch

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