I found this article quite interesting. I hadn't realized the scope of this technology. This sort of tech makes me glad to have a 30 year old car that should run without needing permission to do so.
We had a conversation at work regarding the possibility of the remote log in pacemaker device being hacked. Pretty chilling.
https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8
Here’s a delicious story: CNN reports that Russian looters, collaborating with the Russian military, stole 27 pieces of John Deere farm equipment from a dealership in Melitopol, Ukraine, collectively valued at $5,000,000. The equipment was shipped to Chechnya, but it will avail the thieves naught, because the John Deere dealership reached out over the internet and bricked these tractors, using an in-built kill-switch.
Since that story ran last week, I’ve lost track of the number of people who sent it to me. I can see why: it’s a perfect cyberpunk nugget: stolen tractors rendered inert by an over-the-air update, thwarting the bad guys. It could be the climax of a prescient novella in Asimov’s circa 1996.
But I’m here to tell you: this is not a feel-good story.