return2ozmaCyberattack on vehicle breathalyzer company leaves drivers stranded across the US
OldQWERTYbastardAnd here I was thinking these blow-and-go contraptions were self contained. I should have known better.
JensSpahnpastaIt makes sense - a self-contained device can be circumvented. A connected solution is much, much harder to fool
x00zSomeone knowledgeable enough could tamper with the local equipment to get it to give false negatives, or always pass regardless of blood alcohol content. If it doesn’t phone home, the company (or the court) doesn’t know it’s been tampered with.
This is all theoretical, I know nothing about this tech.
If somebody is good enough to tamper with the part that checks for BAC, why not also tamper with the part that phones home? Would they even need to?
How often do these devices phone home that tapering would be detected? Surely they can’t do it that indefinitely. Or maybe they can. I don’t know
I am not sure on what interval they do but from what I have read online and from talking with someone I know who has one. They constantly phone home. Even when parked and turned off. This means that it will drain your battery and if you don’t drive for long enough (from what they said a week or two) then you can end up with a dead battery. Additionally, when driving, the device requires the driver to re-blow every 45-60 minutes. So the driver needs to pull over and test again otherwise their alarm will go off.
As far as what tampering prevention mechanisms they have I have no idea. I would assume they keep that as secret as possible.