Since the researchers had to run the hack explicitly from a Sprint phone, it sounds like it isn't a public IP address, but a private one behind Sprint's internet access point, and Sprint has left peer-to-peer enabled on that private pool of IPs. The cellular access is to provide a wifi hotspot in the car, and I agree with what everyone has said here about not having critical car systems networked with entertainment systems (didn't we just have that discussion about a Boeing aircraft recently?). Why did Sprint leave that Uconnect pool of IPs able to talk to each other when they could disable peer-to-peer in that pool with trivial effort? I'm guessing it's because the Uconnect server's private IP is within that pool, and the architects didn't want to go to the trouble of setting up a VPN or some other mechanism of allowing an IP outside the pool to initiate traffic with the cars' client Uconnect systems. But, that would mean that either the Uconnect server(s) either are talking to all the cars via their own Sprint cellular connection (seems unlikely) or they have plugged the servers directly into the pool, which opens up the mystery again. Bleh, I'd really like to see the exact network architecture here.

Same here. I've taken my caffeine cold and carbonated for going on four decades now.

Indeed so, but no issue with federal kidnapping charges if you just dump him in the East River instead.

Or is that not what you meant? *innocent look*

Because the roaming network passes the authentication request to the home network HLR - so if the home network HLR is down, the roaming network doesn't know if the SIM can be allowed on its network.

Firing pins don't hit brass, they hit primers. When you reload centerfire ammo, you use new primers. So while sanding down the firing pin is an obvious 'solution' here, brass collected from wherever isn't going to be different from newly manufactured brass unless the ammunition manufacturer has imprinted it and tracked the initial retail sale. All that said, I'd use brass from public and police ranges too, just in case.

and then a followup message, "...and just for the record, you're talking to the fourth smartest."

They'll take all the children out of the Battlebot competitions and make the robots run by remote control.