Re:Researchers find it’s easy to hack traffic lights
by userbinator on Wednesday August 20, 2014 @10:55PM
(#8205745)
Wireless!? On traffic lights that presumably have to be connected to a power source anyway? It seems to me that the cost of running an additional network cable to each light (or even just sending the control through powerline networking) would be negligible, and it would prevent much of the attacks described - physical "hacking" would be required, which is more difficult to do and easier to detect. This seems like yet another case of large increases in complexity (and thus attack area) for little to no benefit, as is all too common in systems these days.
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Re:Researchers find it’s easy to hack traffic lights
by elithrar on Thursday August 21, 2014 @04:02AM
(#8206338)
Note that it is entirely possible your power source (often a metered source from a utility) may be distinct from your comms source, if you even have comms in that location at all.
Re:Researchers find it’s easy to hack traffic lights
by tripzilch on Thursday August 21, 2014 @12:48PM
(#8208286)
Sometimes emergency vehicles need the ability to affect traffic lights.
I'm pretty sure I've seen this happen once (in NL), at an intersection with a very predictable traffic light sequence (some intersections use sensors, others simply follow a set pattern), an ambulance came by, sirens blaring, and the whole pattern pretty much skipped a "turn".