If you bring a chinese device into my home and connect to my Wi-Fi and I find out about it (which I will because my router reports new connections etc.), you will be turfed out and you will not be given the new Wi-Fi code.
I wish other people, specifically government, business and industry took this stuff quite as serious as it should be taken; but no, Tik Tok funny right?
Chesney1995 on
Oh that must explain why they’re always so fucking late then
MootRevolution on
What about all these new Chinese cars flooding the market? It would probably be safe to presume they also have a kill switch.
[deleted] on
[removed]
BaldyBaldyBouncer on
“the technology could potentially be used by manufacturers to interfere with the vehicle’s operations.”
Source, trust me bro
Light991 on
The article says the technology basically exists to enable software updates. Any company that does software updates to your device can basically kill your device.
SoggyWotsits on
Apparently so do Chinese made solar panels, inverters, wind turbines… we’re only a diplomatic blunder away from chaos!
UpsetKoalaBear on
Said this before, but realistically they’re not going to use this for anything nefarious.
If China were planning on using them to cause damage, surely they would just put remote accelerators in the vehicles instead of kill switches if they wanted to kill our infrastructure.
It obviously would make sense to just make it accelerate uncontrollably.
This is just fear mongering.
A bus accelerating to like 50mph into traffic is far more damaging than them being able to remotely turn it off.
Use your brains.
LeaguePuzzled3606 on
Yes, its called standard firmware update functionality. If you drive a Tesla or something moderately expensive the manufacturer could kill it too. Or kill your AC and put it behind a subscription service.
Ravekat1 on
So if the Chinese attack, I’ll never be able to get to Orpington high street?
Sluggybeef on
All of our modern tractors have this. If you stop making finance payments they can switch off your John Deere from Germany
StiffAssedBrit on
Can you imagine if the current crop of politicians had been in power in the 1930’s.
Spitfires would have been built in Germany and we’d have subcontracted ammunition manufacturing to Italy.
Tanks would have been ordered from Japan and shipped half way around the world to save three shillings per unit!
LordAnubis12 on
>Each of the Yutong buses is fitted with an onboard SIM card to allow software updates, but the technology **could potentially** be used by manufacturers to interfere with the vehicle’s operations.
It’s a fairly valid concern to look into, but there’s a lot of maybe and ifs here
>Government security analysts do not believe there is a serious risk the “kill switch” will be used, but the findings could raise concerns over the UK’s dependency on Chinese goodwill for critical infrastructure.
This is the real issue – that the UK is terrified of investing in any of its own infrastructure.
JustGhostin on
This post was brought to you by ford motor vehicles
rev-fr-john on
Wait until they discover where the circuit boards for critical safety systems like anti lock brakes are made along with most of the cast iron and steel components used in steering and brakes.
bob_nugget_the_3rd on
So its the ignition, because cheap Chinese batteries are know for their safety records
mayasux on
With how the US is brazenly disregarding international law and threatening our leaders/allies I’m shocked we’re still fear mongering China.
SaltyName8341 on
30,000 buses in operation (I know not always) and we’re supposed to be trembling because hundreds have this switch. Just more xenophobia from the rags.
CodeToManagement on
This is such a non story
The busses have software which allows remote updates. This could possibly be used to turn them off – I mean yea if it’s a remote update it could maybe be used to do that. Doesn’t mean this was a malicious thing, just that the potential exists
Jensen1994 on
Ffs. So everything that connects to the Internet for updates therefore has a “kill switch”. These buses could be used by Chinese troops to ferry their soldiers to the battlefield, or they could be used by China to run people over
What fucking nonsense.
llamasim on
Im sure the first part of a Chinese takeover will be Pooh Bear disabling the 45a to Ramsgate.
Well_this_is_akward on
Apparently could stop the bus from driving, a lot less exciting
Anustart2023-01 on
I’m so disgusted with how weak and pathetic UK and EU leaders are towards standing up to or combatting US and Chinese world hegemony.
zwifter11 on
Makes no difference. They’re always late or not showing up, anyway.
The biggest kill switch is having FirstBus operate your public transport.
96-62 on
Trying to remove this possibility would be a nightmare – there would have to be a law preventing all network connectivity from vehicles at the hardware level, and I think it might be ignored.
Anything less than that and it could be changed by a software upgrade that’s part of your vehicle service.
Madness_Quotient on
This is just the printer model being applied to vehicles.
Minimum-Accident-821 on
Yet another reason why I don’t want any modern car, as manufacturers can remotely fuck it up and I cannot repair it myself.
Lastfleetadmiral on
Every single car lorry tractor etc on sale today has this capability. How do you think companies like Tesla switch on and off features on their cars once they reach the used market or companies like BMW think subscription services for heated seats would be a great idea. The headline is supposed to install fear of China when it should be educating people about how these systems can be and are abused regardless of manufacture and give some clear examples when abuse takes place
Astriania on
Basically anything that can accept force pushed updates over the Internet has this. You see it with US car companies too.
Personally I don’t think vehicles should need software updates, the control systems that the software is for don’t change and they are immune to cyber attack (unless you let someone plug in to the ECU or something), and they shouldn’t be Internet connected at all.
I’m not sure I trust China much less than anyone else (at least outside western Europe) tbh, I don’t think *any* buses should be able to be remotely disabled.
Revolutionary-Mode75 on
The same over the air update technology also exists in Telsa cars. Tesla has even shown it can remotely disable them, I don’t see the security services raising fears about that possibility, an it more than a possibility given how mentally unstable Musk is.
the_smug_mode on
Same thing will all our solar farms. The found kill switches in the solar inverters, except those were deliberately hidden.
Our politicians are pathetically weak and exposing us to great risk.
31 Comments
If you bring a chinese device into my home and connect to my Wi-Fi and I find out about it (which I will because my router reports new connections etc.), you will be turfed out and you will not be given the new Wi-Fi code.
I wish other people, specifically government, business and industry took this stuff quite as serious as it should be taken; but no, Tik Tok funny right?
Oh that must explain why they’re always so fucking late then
What about all these new Chinese cars flooding the market? It would probably be safe to presume they also have a kill switch.
[removed]
“the technology could potentially be used by manufacturers to interfere with the vehicle’s operations.”
Source, trust me bro
The article says the technology basically exists to enable software updates. Any company that does software updates to your device can basically kill your device.
Apparently so do Chinese made solar panels, inverters, wind turbines… we’re only a diplomatic blunder away from chaos!
Said this before, but realistically they’re not going to use this for anything nefarious.
If China were planning on using them to cause damage, surely they would just put remote accelerators in the vehicles instead of kill switches if they wanted to kill our infrastructure.
It obviously would make sense to just make it accelerate uncontrollably.
This is just fear mongering.
A bus accelerating to like 50mph into traffic is far more damaging than them being able to remotely turn it off.
Use your brains.
Yes, its called standard firmware update functionality. If you drive a Tesla or something moderately expensive the manufacturer could kill it too. Or kill your AC and put it behind a subscription service.
So if the Chinese attack, I’ll never be able to get to Orpington high street?
All of our modern tractors have this. If you stop making finance payments they can switch off your John Deere from Germany
Can you imagine if the current crop of politicians had been in power in the 1930’s.
Spitfires would have been built in Germany and we’d have subcontracted ammunition manufacturing to Italy.
Tanks would have been ordered from Japan and shipped half way around the world to save three shillings per unit!
>Each of the Yutong buses is fitted with an onboard SIM card to allow software updates, but the technology **could potentially** be used by manufacturers to interfere with the vehicle’s operations.
It’s a fairly valid concern to look into, but there’s a lot of maybe and ifs here
>Government security analysts do not believe there is a serious risk the “kill switch” will be used, but the findings could raise concerns over the UK’s dependency on Chinese goodwill for critical infrastructure.
This is the real issue – that the UK is terrified of investing in any of its own infrastructure.
This post was brought to you by ford motor vehicles
Wait until they discover where the circuit boards for critical safety systems like anti lock brakes are made along with most of the cast iron and steel components used in steering and brakes.
So its the ignition, because cheap Chinese batteries are know for their safety records
With how the US is brazenly disregarding international law and threatening our leaders/allies I’m shocked we’re still fear mongering China.
30,000 buses in operation (I know not always) and we’re supposed to be trembling because hundreds have this switch. Just more xenophobia from the rags.
This is such a non story
The busses have software which allows remote updates. This could possibly be used to turn them off – I mean yea if it’s a remote update it could maybe be used to do that. Doesn’t mean this was a malicious thing, just that the potential exists
Ffs. So everything that connects to the Internet for updates therefore has a “kill switch”. These buses could be used by Chinese troops to ferry their soldiers to the battlefield, or they could be used by China to run people over
What fucking nonsense.
Im sure the first part of a Chinese takeover will be Pooh Bear disabling the 45a to Ramsgate.
Apparently could stop the bus from driving, a lot less exciting
I’m so disgusted with how weak and pathetic UK and EU leaders are towards standing up to or combatting US and Chinese world hegemony.
Makes no difference. They’re always late or not showing up, anyway.
The biggest kill switch is having FirstBus operate your public transport.
Trying to remove this possibility would be a nightmare – there would have to be a law preventing all network connectivity from vehicles at the hardware level, and I think it might be ignored.
Anything less than that and it could be changed by a software upgrade that’s part of your vehicle service.
This is just the printer model being applied to vehicles.
Yet another reason why I don’t want any modern car, as manufacturers can remotely fuck it up and I cannot repair it myself.
Every single car lorry tractor etc on sale today has this capability. How do you think companies like Tesla switch on and off features on their cars once they reach the used market or companies like BMW think subscription services for heated seats would be a great idea. The headline is supposed to install fear of China when it should be educating people about how these systems can be and are abused regardless of manufacture and give some clear examples when abuse takes place
Basically anything that can accept force pushed updates over the Internet has this. You see it with US car companies too.
Personally I don’t think vehicles should need software updates, the control systems that the software is for don’t change and they are immune to cyber attack (unless you let someone plug in to the ECU or something), and they shouldn’t be Internet connected at all.
I’m not sure I trust China much less than anyone else (at least outside western Europe) tbh, I don’t think *any* buses should be able to be remotely disabled.
The same over the air update technology also exists in Telsa cars. Tesla has even shown it can remotely disable them, I don’t see the security services raising fears about that possibility, an it more than a possibility given how mentally unstable Musk is.
Same thing will all our solar farms. The found kill switches in the solar inverters, except those were deliberately hidden.
Our politicians are pathetically weak and exposing us to great risk.