Hack hijacks electric skateboards, dumps hipsters in the gutter A hacker duo have shown how to hijack "Boosted" brand electricity-assisted skateboards. The boards feature small motors to help riders go up hills, or down hills much faster. An app controls the motors over Bluetooth. Stripe security engineer Richo Healey and penetration tester and Bluetooth expert Mike Ryan found a way to …
So he first noticed this because disconnecting from the controller caused him to crash. Surely if it disconnects, it should fail to a safe state, presumably simply turning the motors off and leaving it to behave as a regular, unpowered skateboard. A skateboard that launches its user facefirst into the ground as a reaction to losing its connection really doesn't sound like a great idea even before anyone starts hacking.
Also, am I to understand that using this skateboard requires you to actually control it with your phone while using it? As in, these guys are standing in traffic on a motorised board playing with their phones instead of looking where they're going? They should count themselves lucky if hacking is the worst that happens to them.
I"d think that something that uses the last speed setting and then slowly tapers off would be easier on the rider's sense of balance.
As for the control, I'd assume that it'd be a single control that you move your finger up and down for speed (Not much else needs to be controlled anyway). So it would be held out to the side without having to look at it. But then there is the issue of accidentally hitting the home button or something on it...
Never-the-less the whole concept is idiotic; its a device that costs ridiculous sums of cash to make a merely make a task a little easier that when it fails, has the potential to cause serious injury.
Because, what, we should all drive cars everywhere as soon as we turn 18? Not everyone HAS to drive (i.e., is elderly, disabled, covering huge distance, schlepping cargo, and/or in crap weather) and if Healy can get where he needs to go using a skateboard (albeit a motorized one), good on him. (No, I don't skateboard, but I do bike. Everywhere.)
We make a comedy movie in which the dictator of an (unnamed) East Asian repressive Communist regime loves skateboarding, and a heroic English speaking country decides to overthrow said dictator by infiltrating two journalists who are trained how to hack the Leader's skateboard and thereby effect his demise. Hilarity ensues.
What could possibly go wrong?
Mine's the one with script in the pocket.
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