Oh, good grief: Richard Clarke thinks the car of Michael Hastings might have been hacked:
... Former U.S. National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism Richard Clarke told The Huffington Post that what is known about the single-vehicle crash is "consistent with a car cyber attack."You will certainly not be astonished to learn that Fox Nation has eagerly seized on this story.
Clarke said, "There is reason to believe that intelligence agencies for major powers" -- including the United States -- know how to remotely seize control of a car.
"What has been revealed as a result of some research at universities is that it's relatively easy to hack your way into the control system of a car, and to do such things as cause acceleration when the driver doesn't want acceleration, to throw on the brakes when the driver doesn't want the brakes on, to launch an air bag," Clarke told The Huffington Post. "You can do some really highly destructive things now, through hacking a car, and it's not that hard."
"So if there were a cyber attack on the car -- and I'm not saying there was," Clarke added, "I think whoever did it would probably get away with it."
Look, I don't know. I'm sure the righties (and Snowdenites) have elaborate theories as to why the Obama administration would not only kill Hastings, but kill him in a way straight out of a cheap novel. I don't believe there was foul play -- but if I did think he might have been killed, my supicions would fall less on the hite House than on the very famous individuals he investigated:
Hastings practiced a brand of no-holds-barred journalism that tended to anger powerful people. His 2010 profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, published in Rolling Stone, was so damaging that it ostensibly prompted President Barack Obama to fire the general....McChrystal? Petraeus? Kelley? You want to conspiratorialize, try conspiratorializing about one of them.
In the days before his death, Hastings was reportedly working on a story about a lawsuit filed by Jill Kelley, who was involved in the scandal that brought down Gen. David Petraeus, according to the LA Times.
Steve You're a kill joy! And I just or 10000 tin foil hat's from my favourite 'merican a sweat shop too.... clearly you are anti- free enterprise a... a Crpto- fascist kommy librul. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that there's anything but an accident here. But...
ReplyDeleteThe active component (i.e. "sharp end of the spear") of most government intelligence agencies has lately been privatized to corporations which have little or no accountability to the public, Congress, or much of the Executive branch. Many or most of the employees for these positions come from ex-Special Operations Command members - SEALs, Special Forces, etc. McChrystal was once the CO of Special Ops. It could be possible that someone in the lower echelon of one of these private companies (or several people, still at lower levels) decided on a little revenge on the guy who took down a "hero", knowing full well that if anyone in his / their organization ever found out of their involvement that the first impulse would be to cover up rather than to expose and punish. And there are a lot of ways to make a car crash (or explode) that only an exhaustive inspection after the fact would uncover.
Again, not saying it's a fact, or even probable, but entirely possible.
Isn't Richard Clarke's whole routine now all about cybersecurity? Bit of a self-interest issue in this response, no?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure whether I should be worried or not.
ReplyDeleteBoth my cars are 18 or 19 years old.
Would that make them easier to hack?
Or will some hacker laugh to death at the thought of having to hack what, in automotive computer terms, is the equivalent of a Commodore 64?
The fun part is that now the ignorant and gullible FOX viewers will be paranoid about the computers running their cars. Even the ones on cement blocks, in their front yards.
It was an "FBI drone strike"...they are everywhere...and they are watching...
ReplyDeleteI'm usually as skeptical of black helicopter types as you are. The huge conflagration surprised me, but is only mildly suspicious. Here's the part that I can't fit into my expectations for an MVA: the engine and transmission ended up something like 100 feet from the rest of the car. I've never seen or heard of such a thing. If that happens in other accidents, I'll take off my tin foil hat. Otherwise I'm a bit suspicious.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama & Co. have such mad hacking skillz, why didn't they hack the results of the 2010 election?
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