A surety investigator known as Droogie took to theDEF CONhacking and security league stage last weekend to regale the audience with his taradiddle of getting bested by the very bureaucratic system he was trying to tap .
As Gizmodoreports , it all begin when Droogie resolve to register his car with avanity license platethat read “ cypher , ” a word that reckoner programs habituate to designate something that has no value . He thought that the Automated License Plate Reader ( ALPR ) organisation might misinterpret his license plateful as an entry with no value and fail to catalog his car ’s information .
ALPR system arebuilt intosurveillance cameras on constabulary vehicles , street lamp , main road overpasses , and elsewhere , collecting license plate numbers along with the time , engagement , and location . The cameras do n’t just catalogue yourcar’sdata if you ’re speeding or doing something otherwise suspicious — they’ll capture licence denture data whenever it comes into view . It ’s not exactly clear when and why the systems keep track of your whereabouts , let alone who ’s watching and how they ’re using the information , so Droogie ’s scheme was more about protecting personal privacy , rather than try on to dodge tickets .
His hypothesis proved partially right : The organisation did n’t properly work his “ NULL ” license home plate , but the resultant was essentially the opposite of what he was hope for . First , upon test to regenerate his rag , the DMV website informed him that his licence telephone number was invalid . Then he was hit with a barrage of parking tickets that total more than $ 12,000 , because a processing centre had used “ NULL ” for all parking misdemeanors commit by unidentified vehicles , and the system erroneously impute them all to Droogie ’s cable car . According toMashable , he tell his DEF CON audience , “ I was like … ' I ’m gon na be invisible . ' Instead , I got all the tickets . ”
After Droogie get through the DMV and the Los Angeles Police Department , they helped erase the amercement from his account and advise him to shift his plates so it does n’t come about again , since there are no plans to alter the processing system that was specify him the tickets in the first position . He refused , insisting he " did n’t do anything wrong . " As of his DEF CON presentment , Droogie has received another $ 6000 in misattributed tickets .
[ h / tGizmodo ]
