Wed Apr 16 01:29:59 UTC 2008

Too much GPS on the Nissan GT-R

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I don't think this is exactly fresh news, but it still has an interesting security angle.

The new Nissan GT-R Japanese model has a speed limiter that keeps the vehicle below 180 kph. It also has a GPS that tracks your location. If you drive your car to a racetrack that Nissan knows about, you are allowed to unlock the speed limiter so you can give the car a good thrashing … however, as soon as you have finished, you have to take your car to a Nissan “High Performance Centre” for an expensive safety check – otherwise your vehicle's warranty becomes void. See Damon Lavrinc's February 2008 post on autoblog.com for details.

As Bruce Schneier said recently :-

Security requires a particular mindset. Security professionals – at least the good ones – see the world differently. They can't walk into a store without noticing how they might shoplift. They can't use a computer without wondering about the security vulnerabilities. They can't vote without trying to figure out how to vote twice. They just can't help it.

Steal the GT-R, take it to a racetrack and unlock the speed limiter. Then return the vehicle before it is missed, but cause damage that would be eligible for warranty return; then watch the owner suffer economic misery, because they didn't visit the “HPC” for the safety checkup after their "race meeting".