Look Ma, No-Hands Fasteners!

theodp writes "Inspired by a daughter who suffered a serious infection from an IV feeding apparatus, the Trib reports an Australian architect has developed high-tech bolts and latches, which can be operated remotely without being touched. The first commercial applications are intended for aircraft, allowing crews to quickly reshape interiors to maximize payload space. BTW, smart fasteners hit Slashdot's radar almost two years ago."

Easily Hacked

[ResQuad]

Now, I think this is really nifty, but... its easily hacked. Why? Because anything transmitted over open air can be hi-jacked. They claim otherwise, but I find it hard to belive that a unit thats small and simple enough to replace standered fixing devices (like bolts) would be smart enough to handle and nearly unbreakable encryption scheme.

Oh well, time will tell.

Umm, batteries?

[Spy Hunter]

Don't these require batteries which will eventually go dead, rendering them unable to be released remotely, and possibly difficult to remove at all? Also, if anyone believes these things are truly hack-proof, they must be pretty gullible.

Re:Hacker's Delight

[jesseck]

No more laptops or PDAs in flight...

Re:Secured against unauthorized parties?

[Majik Sheff]

Yup, that's exactly where this will go. You thought the retarded screws that companies like Nintendo use are annoying, wait till you try to "tamper" with your brand new ultra hd-dvd:

Oh, you didn't use the right code to open the case? We're gonna brick it now.

This is the future, where you will need the manufacturer's permission to do anything to an item that you supposedly own.

Re:Here's how you secure it:

[Sircus]

If you give it a bad key, it locks up for, say, an hour, ten minutes, whatever, ignoring all input.
....
How would you attack this?

Send a bad key once a minute. One useless bolt.

Re:A question

[Anonymous Coward]

Ever noticed a minature watch battery goes flat if you leave it in a really hot car, or flat with a realy cold snap. A bolt would be metal, which conducts heat...

An aeroplane sitting on a hot middle-east tarmac, or freezing loose while flying over cold North Dakota.
Depressurisation and repressurisation will cause moisture and salt to get in and attack the battery, or a lightning strike , or static electricity zap make the device kaput.

Minature solenoids suffer from vibration, and fatigue breakages. If using magnets, and a micro latch, electrolysis could make them stick, or corrode.

Plus they have left out shear strength, or if the bolt works after being spayed with cocacola test. All this against proven and cheap spring loaded latches and self feed bolt drivers. A few hurdles.

Does this count as DRM then?

[SlideWRX]

Will I be violating DCMA If I take apart my car and replace this with a 'dumb' bolt? I'm not against these so much as the political BS that could pile up around them. How long until the government starts regulating that the black boxes that are becoming common in cars are bolted in with coded bolts, such that removing it is a violation?

Voiding the Warranty

[Millard Fillmore]

When I read the article, I was concerned not with the ease with which a third party could hack the radio signals, but with the problems this technology could cause for regular users who want to take apart their consumer products. If, as the article predicts, these RF fasteners make visible screws and bolts a thing of the past, to be replaced by internal, remote-controlled fasteners, the main result will not be opening up new avenues for design, but limiting users' ability to take apart their devices. In this dystopian future, only qualified service representatives might be authorized to use the coded signals to open up the case on a PC or a phone, for example. Or the fasteners could be rigged to electronically keep track of "tampering" or "unauthorized access." I would prefer to at least have the option to void the warranty without having to smash open the case with a rock!

If I worked on such a technology...

[bill_kress]

I'd be seriously tempted to earn my millions...

1) Wait for full deplyoment.

2) Design a tiny transmitter, they seemed to be saying these things could be "Daisy Chained" so you would only need to be near one bolt--that means a good transmitter taped to a watch battery could be as small as a quarter. You worked at the company, so figureing out the codes should be a no-brainer, they are probably as easy to hack as RFID.

3) Place the transmitter somewhere under/in a chair (maybe slit the fabric somewhere or bubble-gum attach it underneath on a few dozen planes.

4) It mid-flight, five flights later one goes of and unlatches all the seats, then starts sending an invalid signal every 5 minutes so they cannot be re-latched for landing.

5) send a letter to the airlines saying there are more set to go off in the future, but you'd be glad to sell them the locations

6) profit.

Yeah, I guess that sucks--probably why I'm not a theif.