California's Wireless Road Tolls Easily Hackable

Slashdot posts a story about researcher Nate Lawson of Root Labs that has figured out how to clone the wireless transponders used by the automated FasTrak toll system on roads and bridges in the Bay Area of California.

Lawson says that fraud could be easily committed by cloning a transponder's unique identity number and copying that Id of another driver onto their own device. The ID number thief could then travel for free while other drivers unwittingly foot the bill.

"It's trivial to clone a device," Lawson says. "In fact, I have several clones with my own ID already."

Lawson also raised the poissilibity of using the FasTrak system to create false alibis by overwriting one's own ID onto another driver's device before committing a crime The logs for the toll system would appear to show the perpetrator driving at another location when the crime was being commited, he says.

See more at Technology Review.