The researchers shared their findings at DefCon virtual event and also explained the aftermath of hacking traffic lights by malicious elements.
With technology connecting everything around us, a lot of our devices also become more vulnerable and that’s one major issue with the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Such is the case in the Netherlands where certain traffic light systems are being connected to the smartphones of users in order to improve the traffic signals flow.
However, just recently at DEFCON, security researchers Rik van Duijn and Wesley Neelen who run a security firm named Zolder have demonstrated how these lights could be manipulated altering the frequency of different traffic signals.
Explaining their findings, the researchers begun by introducing how certain apps exist for cyclists to install and therefore this became the focal point of their research. One may think, cyclists and traffic lights?
See: Man uses 99 smartphones to cause traffic jam on Google Maps
Well, it turns out that the Dutch country has about 23 million bicycles along with a 35,000 km cycling infrastructure making it a regular part of their traffic.
Now going into how the manipulation worked, we need to understand that these apps allow cyclists to communicate with traffic light systems in terms of telling the system of their location at a particular intersection.
So for example, if I am near an intersection, the traffic light system would know and this would result in the time for light to go green to be decreased helping smoothify the flow of traffic and creating ease nonetheless.
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