Tag Archives: Radboud University Nijmegen

Automobiles

Report: UK court prohibits scientist from publishing car-starting secret codes

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By Damon Lowney

UK judge imposes jumction on scientists who want to publish vehicle security codes.

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Three university scientists from England and the Netherlands figured out how to unlock and start Volkswagen-owned luxury vehicles wirelessly without the key, and compiled their findings in an academic paper. The scientists claimed that the research was intended to increase security for everyone, and while that might be true if the codes needed to crack the secret algorithm were never to be published, they planned to publish the paper at the Usenix Security Symposium in Washington, DC, next month.

Fortunately for those who own a Bentley, Lamborghini, Audi or Porsche (and other unmentioned brands), a UK judge imposed an injunction against the England-based scientist, Flavio Garcia, to not attend the symposium, The Guardian reports, recognizing that the information could result in the theft of many vehicles. The other two scientists, Roel Verdult and Baris Ege from Radboud University Nijmegen, won’t attend, either.

The algorithm, called Megamos Crypto, allows the key to communicate with the vehicle by deciphering and reordering the codes sent between the two, acting both as a translator of sorts and a safety barrier. With the wrong key in hand – or no key – the car won’t function, unless the algorithm has been bypassed another way.

For its part, Volkswagen was actually okay with the paper – Dismantling Megamos Cryptos: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobiliser – being published, but only if the offending codes were redacted. The scientists, of course, refused.

We appreciate the scientists’ effort to increase security by learning the weaknesses of the systems that protect us, but we would rather not have that information in the public domain. With the codes in the wrong hands, who knows what could happen next.

UK court prohibits scientist from publishing car-starting secret codes originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 30 Jul 2013 07:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Autoblog

Computers

University condemns court ban of research paper on flaws in car lock system

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A court ban on a research paper that analyzes flaws in a car-lock system should be overturned, according to the Dutch university that employs two of the three researchers who wrote the analysis.

The U.K. High Court of Justice banned the publication of the paper, “Dismantling Megamos Crypto: Wirelessly Lockpicking a Vehicle Immobilizer” on June 25, said the Radboud University Nijmegen in a news release on Monday. The ban came to the attention of the public when the U.K. newspaper The Guardian published a story about it over the weekend.

The U.K. court issued an interim block on the research paper, while considering a permanent ban on request of car manufacturer Volkswagen, the university added. French defence group Thales also requested the ban, according to a report by the BBC.

Roel Verdult and Baris Ege, of the Digital Security faculty at Radboud University, were planning to present their paper with Flavio Garcia a lecturer in Computer Science of the University of Birmingham during the USENIX Security Symposium in Washington, D.C., in August, the Dutch university said.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at PCWorld

Science & Technology

Super gel stiffens when heated

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It stiffens when heated and retains moisture a hundred times better than other gels. Chemists at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, have created a gel made from helical polymers. The molecules twist together to form a ‘nano rope’, from which strong, stiff networks are produced. What is unusual is that a solution of the material is liquid when cold and turns into a gel when warmed – exactly the opposite of what happens to gelatine, for example. The leading scientific journal Nature published a paper showing how the ‘super gel’ works and its properties on January 24. Together with the business community, the researchers are also developing various biomedical applications for this extraordinary gel.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Phys.org