Today is the world of IOT devices, almost everything can be connected to the internet and even the Snipers are today connected to the internet. But their internet connectivity can be their biggest weakness as well. TrackingPoint Sniper hacked by security researchers, and they were able to change the target and even disable it completely.
TrackingPoint self-aiming rifles come with a fully-computerized, Linux-powered scope which helps the shooter to accurately aim and hit its target. Shooters are also given the option to stream a video of their shot onto their PC or laptop by enabling the Wi-Fi system of the gun, which uses a default password automatically.
TrackingPoint Sniper Hacked, what can be the reason for that?
The gun’s Wifi system is turned off automatically, but when it turns on it can allow anyone in range to communicate with it by hacking into the system. Once a hacker is connected to the gun’s Wifi system, he or she can access the weapon’s APIs to muck around with its targeting app and other features.
TrackingPoint Sniper hacked by security researchers in a demonstration shown to Wired. They were able to take control of the sniper by remotely accessing it. Hackers were able to completely change the gun’s target and they could disable the gun entirely by assigning different values to variables the scope tracks. They also accessed the gun’s security by altering the PIN, which a user can set to limit the access to others.
The security researchers, married couple Michael Auger and Run Sandvik are planning to demonstrate the results at the Black Hat hacker conference in two weeks, but they given Wired magazine a presentation ahead of time.
This is for the second time that Wired demonstrated the loopholes in computer firewalls in modern devices. Last week, it demonstrated how Hackers remotely turned off the transmission of a moving Jeep Cherokee.
TrackingPoint Sniper hacked by security researchers and now John McHale, Founder of the company said that a software update to patch the vulnerability will soon be released to its customers. Since its launch in 2011, TrackingPoint has sold over a thousand of its rifles.