Traffic Hackers Facing Jail
Two men working for the city of Los Angeles are facing jail time for swiping a supervisor’s credentials and reprogramming traffic computers in the run-up to a union protest last August. Their actions caused severe traffic jams at major intersections all around the city.
From the Reg here:
A pair of Los Angeles traffic system engineers have been charged with manipulating traffic signals to disrupt transportation across the city in the run-up to a union protest last August.
Gabriel Murillo, 37 and Kartik Patel, 34, were each charged with one count of unauthorized access of a computer. Murillo also faces an identity theft charge while Patel has been accused of four disruption of service offences. Prosecutors alleged the pair, engineers at in LA’s Automated Traffic Surveillance Center, used purloined supervisor credentials to send commands to reprogram signal control boxes at four critical intersections.
In a scenario reminiscent of the hack performed in the classic crime flick The Italian Job, the duo allegedly made changes that meant the light stayed at red for a long time on congested approaches, creating huge traffic jams in the process. Traffic was affected at four intersections – Sky Way and World Way near LAX airport, a major junction in Studio City, a spot in Little Tokyo and near the LA Civic Center, the LA Times reports.
Do you get free legal representation when you join the union? I don’t think so. These guys are real lucky they didn’t get hit with federal cyber terrorism charges.
