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Hackers can take over car navigation system
By Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:33pm BST 05/05/2007

Motorists who use satellite navigation systems are being warned that hackers can "break in" and send bogus directions.

Using instructions available on the internet and equipment costing less than £100 available from electronic shops, pranksters, or even terrorists, could cause major disruption on the roads.

The hackers can send bogus information over the FM airwaves via transmitters and antennae, replicating messages regularly sent to satellite navigation systems by traffic monitoring companies such as Trafficmaster to warn of congestion or road closures.

When the navigator detects the message, whether it is bogus or genuine, it will provide a different route.

Depending on the gadget's setting, it may even do so without notifying the driver.

Andreas Barisani, of the UK-based firm Inverse Path, which demonstrated the scam at a conference in Canada, said: "It is actually very simple. You can close roads, you can create queues and you can redirect people.

"You can direct traffic all on to one route and create a clear route for yourself. There are all sorts of uses for this.

"The current system of sending this information uses very old technology. We need to move to a new system that encyrpts the message."

Sheila Rainger, the head of campaigns for the RAC Foundation, said: "It would be a shame if this succeeded in undermining people's confidence in the ability of sat navs to alert people to traffic congestion, because that is one of their great strengths.

"It is good for the driver, good for congestion and good for the environment, because you are not stuck in a jam.

"But sat navs should be a helping hand, not a replacement brain. People shouldn't hand over all sense of direction to them. You can always get in touch with operators if you are getting very strange directions from your sat nav."

Phil Hale, from Trafficmaster, admitted: "This is possible but people who do it would be breaking the law."

"But sat navs should be a helping hand, not a replacement brain. People shouldn't hand over all sense of direction to them.

pranksters, or even terrorists, could cause major disruption on the roads.

If a terrorist wished to cause disturbance, wouldn't they just blow up a road.

Unless they sent people to a road they wish to blow up.

I am assuming that this is actually about trafficmaster and nothing to do with Satnav. Not quite the same thing but, hell, it sells papers.

I fail to see how some spotty teenage geek with £100 worth of equipment can actually tap into and disrupt a military satellite system

The traffic data is usually delivered via the RDS channel of an FM station. In theory if someone set up a suitable transmitter the sat nav would decode the data and use it. I don't think it would be anywhere near as easy as the article implies though.

Edited to add this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_Message_Channel

The NIMBYs who don't want people driving down "their" roads would love to be able to use such equipment. Just as well that most of them are fuddy-duddies who couldn't even work out how to use a microwave. At least I hope that's the case.

The traffic data is usually delivered via the RDS channel of an FM station. In theory if someone set up a suitable transmitter the sat nav would decode the data and use it. I don't think it would be anywhere near as easy as the article implies though.

Edited to add this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_Message_Channel

Gives a new excuse to those that followed their sat nav will nilly - like the ones turning right on a level crossing etc

Andreas Barisani, of the UK-based firm Inverse Path, which demonstrated the scam at a conference in Canada, said: "It is actually very simple. You can close roads, you can create queues and you can redirect people.

"You can direct traffic all on to one route and create a clear route for yourself. There are all sorts of uses for this.

"The current system of sending this information uses very old technology. We need to move to a new system that encrypts the message."

"You can direct traffic all on to one route and create a clear route for yourself.

So, as I said, they are not interfering with Satnav at all, only traffic data for traffic master - that I will admit does feed some Satnavs in providing alternative routes.

TrafficMaster doesn't use RDS-TMC, it uses a paging network (Vodafone I think), there is a universal pager number for all TrafficMaster units, and then some units have a unique number for individual messages.