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back to article Satnav hacking made simple

A pair of hackers have demonstrated a way to spoof travel information messages displayed on satellite navigation systems used by Italian drivers to bypass accidents, traffic jams and plot the most efficient routes from one point to another. The hack is so simple it's hard to believe no one has shown it off before. It uses …

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  1. Hedley Phillips

    Nefarious Uses

    Just think of the evil this could be used for.

    Imagine using the hack to send hapless drivers down tiny dirt tracks and roads with steep cliffs, or causing HGV drivers to take thier huge lorries through small villages.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Satnav?

    I thought satnav stands for "Satellite Navigation". Why on earth would one be listening to a FM RDS signal for navigational information?

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  3. frank denton

    Satassnav

    The satellites provide positional information to the in-car receiver. The 'satnav' device contains built in road maps and other application software such as route planning and distance calculation. The 'local' data such as event and road accident information is provided by FM RDS (a local service). It should be called "Satellite Assisted Navigation" but the wimpy marketing people thought it wouldn't sell well so called it "Satellite Navigation".

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  4. Reuben Noot

    Benny Hill in the Italian Job?

    missing a bootnote surely :)

    or was I the only one to think of this? ...

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  5. John

    The ultimate rat run killer!

    Living on a narrow country lane that's shear hell during the week, with the council refusing to do anything, now we have away to stop the b******d cars and lorries.

    The traffics got worse with the uptake of satnav. Ironic to be able to use it to stop them.

    More power to the anti-car revolution!!!!!!!

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  6. e

    Accident on the freeway

    Wow, if you need to drive to work, this would have to help with congestion!

    Do you think you could get a satnav system to broadcast road closed info for roads around your route?

    What about feeder roads?

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  7. Joel

    Driving to work.

    You could even set up little signal transmitters along your route to work, telling everyone else to go elsewhere because it's all jammed up, leaving you with a nice free road to get to work on time :)

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  8. Joel

    And the difference is?

    "Imagine using the hack to send hapless drivers down tiny dirt tracks and roads with steep cliffs, or causing HGV drivers to take their huge lorries through small villages."

    I thought that this was what satnav did anyway?

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/05/crackpot_satnav/

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/08/satnav_menaces_somerset_village/

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/26/subaquatic_merc/

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/05/awol_ambulance_satnav/

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Joel..

    His irony's apparently lost on you, chap :P

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hijack

    Should make any vehicles carrying valuable cargo easier to hijack by directing them off busy roads to a more secluded location.

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  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Irony of it all

    Dear Joel,

    I think that Mr H Phillips may have been employing a certain element of sarcasm in the first post to this comments section.

    If you are unaware of what this means, please either ask a passing American, or search online at your local Wikipedia outlet.

    Thank you for taking your time to participate.

    Good night, from fans of satire around the world.

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