Researcher: Hackers Can Jam Traffic By Manipulating Real-Time Traffic Data 102
An anonymous reader writes "Hackers can influence real-time traffic-flow-analysis systems to make people drive into traffic jams or to keep roads clear in areas where a lot of people use Google or Waze navigation systems, a German researcher demonstrated at BlackHat Europe. 'If, for example, an attacker drives a route and collects the data packets sent to Google, the hacker can replay them later with a modified cookie, platform key and time stamps, Jeske explained in his research paper (PDF). The attack can be intensified by sending several delayed transmissions with different cookies and platform keys, simulating multiple cars, Jeske added. An attacker does not have to drive a route to manipulate data, because Google also accepts data from phones without information from surrounding access points, thus enabling an attacker to influence traffic data worldwide, he added.' 'You don't need special equipment for this and you can manipulate traffic data worldwide,' Jeske said."
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Informative)
It's called a Conflict Monitor Unit and it's a required element for traffic lights per law. It basically does as you say - it looks at the outputs and if an invalid one crops up (two greens, say) then it immediately shuts down the traffic light and optionally returns a signal that could notify when this occurs.
They're a bit more complex than just detecting two greens - they can even monitor things like are the lights cycling properly (green-yellow-red), how long red/yellow/green lights have been on and if red wasn't actually on for some reason.