Last week, the latest edition of the DEF CON convention took place in Las Vegas. There were all sorts of interesting things on display, from hacked voting machines to computers hijacked with iPhone cables, but it would be a grave mistake to ignore the anecdotes shared by some hackers. A researcher nicknamed Droogie decided to outsmart California's fine system by personalizing his license plate with the phrase "NULL," in an attempt to be "invisible." The problem is he achieved exactly the opposite, receiving fines totaling tens of thousands of dollars.
As expected, the relationship between drivers and photo enforcement systems around the world is quite poor, and that has led to an "arms race." On one side, authorities dig in their claws to chase hypothetical offenders, and on the other, drivers try different tricks to escape the relentless mechanical eye. One of the most popular involves placing a Fresnel lens over the plate, but at the DEF CON convention, someone decided to explore a strange alternative.
https://old.neoteo.com/robando-coches-con-20-dolares-en-hardware/That someone is Droogie, a researcher who decided to take advantage of the ability to customize his plate in California (the so-called vanity plates) with the expression "NULL," the classic reserved value used to discard and/or ignore objects, or indicate something undefined, empty, or without value.
Although he did it for fun, Droogie thought that somehow the "NULL" plate would make him escape ticket processing. Nothing happened during the first year (he drove very carefully), but when it came time to update his information at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) of California, the website rejected his NULL plate. That was the first warning.
The real chaos began after receiving a legitimate ticket: a series of completely random fines arrived at his house, adding up to more than $12,000. What happened? Apparently, a private citation processing center had a database of pending fines, and for some indeterminate reason (most likely missing information), a large part of that database identified the plates as "NULL." The processing center supposedly was trying to tell its own systems that it didn't know the original plates. Instead, it sent all the fines to Droogie.
After explaining his peculiar situation to the DMV and the Los Angeles Police Department (to avoid ending up in jail, I imagine), both authorities told him exactly the same thing: change his plate.
Droogie's response? "No, because I haven't done anything wrong." The DMV contacted the processing center and wiped out the $12,000 in fines, but it didn't fix the underlying error! That means Droogie is still receiving fines, this time for more than six thousand dollars.
Source: Mashable
https://old.neoteo.com/hackers-recrean-llaves-maestras-usando-impresoras-3d/
