After Hacker Exposes Hotel Lock Insecurity, Lock Firm Asks Hotels To Pay For Fix 244
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "In an update to an earlier story on Slashdot, hotel lock company Onity is now offering a hardware fix for the millions of hotel keycard locks that hacker Cody Brocious demonstrated at Black Hat were vulnerable to being opened by a sub-$50 Arduino device. Unfortunately, Onity wants the hotels who already bought the company's insecure product to pay for the fix. Onity is actually offering two different mitigations: The first is a plug that blocks the port that Brocious used to gain access to the locks' data, as well as more-obscure Torx screws to prevent intruders from opening the lock's case and removing the plug. That band-aid style fix is free. A second, more rigorous fix requires changing the locks' circuit boards manually. In that case, Onity is offering 'special pricing programs' for the new circuit boards customers need to secure their doors, and requiring them to also pay the shipping and labor costs."
Sweet. (Score:5, Funny)
> "as well as more-obscure Torx screws to prevent intruders from
> opening the lock's case and removing the plug"
Because nobody capable and determined enough to rig up the electronic interface for $50 can handle the mental and financial stresses of a $10 Torx set from the hardware store.
"Well, we got the device. Open it up."
"Whoa! What kind of screws are these?"
"Lemme look -- MY GOD, IT'S FULL OF STARS!"
Of course they won't be (Score:4, Funny)
I can hack any hotel room door.
With an axe.
Now that's what I call... (Score:5, Funny)
All I had to do was press "lock" twice to enter supervisor mode then 999999 and it opened the safe bypassing my code.
"six-nines" availability!
Re:Double standard (Score:4, Funny)
Hmmm, we take umbrage that a company charges for a hardware upgrade to a flawed physical device, but we have gotten used to having to pay for software upgrades to get our bugs fixed. It is the second of these that is the real scandal.
How much did you pay for a Windows Service Pack? Personally, I spent $0.00, consisting of a $0.00 deposit, 35 easy monthly payments of $0.00, and a final payment of $0.00 to keep it for life.