Bud: Credit is a sacred trust, it’s what our free society is founded on. Do you think they give a damn about their bills in Russia?
Otto: They don’t pay bills in Russia, it’s all free.
– Repo Man
More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder gained access to a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments, reports Wired.
Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots.
“We initially dismissed it as mechanical failure,” says Texas Auto Center manager Martin Garcia. “We started having a rash of up to a hundred customers at one time complaining. Some customers complained of the horns going off in the middle of the night. The only option they had was to remove the battery.”
The dealership used a system called Webtech Plus as an alternative to repossessing vehicles that haven’t been paid for. Operated by Cleveland-based Pay Technologies, the system lets car dealers install a small black box under vehicle dashboards that responds to commands issued through a central website, and relayed over a wireless pager network. The dealer can disable a car’s ignition system, or trigger the horn to begin honking, as a reminder that a payment is due. The system will not stop a running vehicle.
Ramos-Lopez’s Webtech Plus account was deleted when he was laid off, but he reportedly got back into the system using another employee’s account. Through AT&T’s internet service, police traced the signal to Ramos-Lopez’s IP address and charged him with breach of computer security. If convicted, Ramos-Lopez could be jailed for 120 days to 2 years.
