Israeli companies have developed and are selling advanced cyber tools that can hack into the tech of your car and use it to collect intelligence on you.

Three years ago, Haaretz revealed the existence of the offensive cyber intelligence company Toka, which was co-founded by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and a former Israel Defense Forces cyber chief, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Yaron Rosen. The firm specialized in hacking into security cameras, but as documents obtained by Haaretz at the time revealed, Toka also had a product called CARINT that fused camera data with data linked to cars.

At the time, the industry was in its infancy. But industry sources say that Toka has since expanded its offering on cars. It has developed and even sold a product capable of hacking into a specific vehicle’s multimedia systems, pinpointing its location and tracking its movements; that is, a specific model by a specific manufacturer. The technology can even remotely access the microphone of the vehicle’s hands-free system, allowing eavesdropping on the driver, and even tap into cameras installed on the dashboard or around the car.

  • Formfiller@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Crazy Ehud Barak the same guy who allegedly trained Epstein as a Mossad spy and lived with him for five years? What a coincidence

  • pedz
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    1 day ago

    Fuck cars. I’m car free and glad to be. My bike doesn’t spy on me. And I don’t really fancy getting an e-bike that requires an app just to work. The only thing spying on me is my Android phone.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      They are forcing my phone to be the key to everything, including my email. So if I lose my phone, or my service, I’m locked out of everything. If the phone isn’t charging I’ve no way to communicate. Emails main use for me is an insurance to communicate if need be, forcing seemingly random verifications to my phone is a dealbreaker. I dropped all other emails outside a new one that doesn’t do that.

      But it’s everything, they want it to be the key to your car, to your house even. Metal keys work, it’s a time tested method of locking things, and more secure than a digital lock. Just as passwords work. If you want to set up a phone as security, go ahead, forcing us to do it isn’t about safety though, it’s about forcing us to give them commercially valuable information under false pretenses, and we all know it. They think we don’t have a choice because they all engaged in a shit trust, all agreeing to not compete and instead change in ways to hurt us that make them more money.

    • FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      100%. If you can bike, that’s both good for your health, AND reduces surveillance.

      We need to push for better bikability especially here in North America. Fortunately my city is good, but so many others are not. Especially for older people who may not be comfortable mixing it up with cars if they bike.

      Of course also now Flock cameras are everywhere, who watch bikes as well as cars. There is no plate on a bicycle, but I have seen allegations they can perform biometric ID of pedestrians and cyclists.

      • hector@lemmy.today
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        1 day ago

        Those Silicon Valley based bikes that you rent with an app, pick up when you see it, leave it where your destination is, do have cameras and microphones on them I believe, and gps. They totally do spy on you, and by extension your phone, which it turns out is a terrible gossip.

        • FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works
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          24 hours ago

          Agreed. I don’t carry a phone today, but I am considering getting a dumbphone + Faraday pouch for emergencies.

          And yah, “smart bikes”… eww.

          • hector@lemmy.today
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            24 hours ago

            I am planning on switching to open source anyway. I think I need to buy a graphene phone for that though, my android I don’t think is capable of loading a different OS, but I’m not savvy that is just what I recall someone telling me.

            Definitely a faraday pouch as well, one that is waterproof and protective to boot even but pocket sized if possible. It’s probably good not to have all those rf waves right next to your balls anyway.

            • FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works
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              23 hours ago

              I think I need to buy a graphene phone for that though, my android I don’t think is capable of loading a different OS,

              I have no experience with it, but they have page here which lists compatible devices, and recommended devices. The recommended ones are a subset, because apparently some older devices lack hardware security features.

  • Tigeroovy
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    24 hours ago

    Nah, my car is old enough that it has a CD player, it’s not spying on shit.

  • hector@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    If you connect your car to your phone, the police can get into your phone, without a warrant, without much effort, without you knowing. They can see pretty much everything. Something about an old supreme court decision from a hundred years back, cars are mobile so they can’t get warrants, and our dishonorable supreme court naturally endorsed dishonoring the 4th amendment to give police more power. I think this is the article, from a couple of years back or something if so: https://theintercept.com/2021/05/03/car-surveillance-berla-msab-cbp/

  • Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    When my car’s radio system completely busted over a year ago, I wasn’t in a rush to replace it. To replace it with the same original radio would’ve cost over $3000. Meanwhile, all the car radios I saw in stores were touch screen - I refuse to buy those. So I’ve simply gone without.

    But the radio/infotainment was connected to other systems, including the back-up camera and clock. I can’t change the time and I need to look out the windows/windshields to back up. I take some solace in knowing that despite those minor set-backs, at least I don’t have to worry about my car’s radio system being a little snitch.

    • FineCoatMummy@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      at least I don’t have to worry about my car’s radio system being a little snitch

      I feel your pain. It’s nearly impossible now to buy a disconnected car, and over time, pre-connectivity cars will become old and less reliable.

      I need to look out the windows/windshields to back up.

      Which is getting harder on some models of hatchback where it’s difficult to see out the rear window. My car is like that. My old car was a 4 dr sedan and you could easily see behind. In my new car I would not feel safe backing up without the camera due to how bad the rear visibility is. Especially in parking lots with the risk that a child below window level had run out from somewhere into my blind spot. That’s what keeps me tethered to my backup camera - the fear of hitting another person I couldn’t see. Otherwise I would do exactly what you are doing.

      I bike whenever I can, but sometimes, I must drive.

      Another problem is that on some newer cars, the “little snitch” part of the car is the same subsystem as other features of the car you need, like the directional blinkers. You rip out the snitching part, and you also lose safety features you need legally and ethically.

      I hate this. All of this. I hate that the default for so many devices now, not just cars, is surveillance.

      • ZombieChicken@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        I know it’s nontrivial, but kit cars are a thing. If they won’t make the car you want, build it.

        Please verify the process to make it street legal before buying the kit, though. Don’t want to end up with a car-sized paperweight.

  • monovergent@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Every day I feel more justified in keeping my 1990s car running.

    (I’d also like to walk or take public transit, but the infrastructure here is car dependent)

  • Matt@lemmy.ml
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    11 hours ago

    We have eCall in the EU so that lads from Brussels can spy on us in our cars.

    • hector@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      Can we disable these cameras and microphones at least? I can’t imagine people would have stood for this level of surveillance and control a few generations back. Something is fundamentally wrong with us, I seriously think some systematic pollutant is making us more docile and trusting. Not just taxoplasmosis which could infect up to 30% of the population and does inhibit the fear center, spread between cats and rodents the rodents that get it lose their fear of cats. But all mammals can get it. Spread through feces.

  • TheImpressiveX@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    This is why you should switch to ebikes if you can, it’s better for the environment and they don’t track you.

    • themurphy@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      If it’s those pay-per-ride city bikes, then you bet your ass they are tracked.

      • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        If you use one of those regularly just buy an ebike. Doesn’t take that long for the cost of those ultra short term rental apps to exceed buying your own.

      • Stiffy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Of course they are! Do you think that the city or state will just let people take them wherever and expect to get it back? It’s not exactly running on the honor system. I’ve seen loads of people just take them to sell them for parts. All of those chips inside of them. And there are ways to hack them so they aren’t connected to the software they were originally powered to be on. If somebody wants to make money, they’ll go the distance.

        • Auli
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          9 hours ago

          So now the state owns Bird and the others.