John Deer remotely disables stolen farm equipment.

[TheDan]

Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine -- to find they've been remotely disabled | CNN

Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership -- and shipped it to Chechnya, according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area.

www.cnn.com

John Deer remotely disables stolen tractors from 6,000 miles away. Cool, cool... So John Deer can remotely disable the most popular farm equipment in the US... and Russia now knows this... and has the disabled devices in their possession to reverse engineer. Neato.

BTW, China has had this info for awhile.

 

[lightflyer1]

repeat, already posted

 

[Brains]

Tractors aren't exactly difficult for a state-funded team to splice in replacement controllers to get them moving again. Pretty much doing what hot rodders do when faced with the increasingly locked down ECUs in cars like the new Corvette. Install a piggy back ECU of your liking and do what you want.

ETA: Just to clarify, they'll be able to certainly get the tractors working, but perhaps without all the fancy automation and assistive tech operational. That's not to say they won't be able to crack that egg and enable the whole kit, Russia has some pretty talented minds too.

 

[TheDan]

Tractors aren't exactly difficult for a state-funded team to splice in replacement controllers to get them moving again. Pretty much doing what hot rodders do when faced with the increasingly locked down ECUs in cars like the new Corvette. Install a piggy back ECU of your liking and do what you want.

ETA: Just to clarify, they'll be able to certainly get the tractors working, but perhaps without all the fancy automation and assistive tech operational. That's not to say they won't be able to crack that egg and enable the whole kit, Russia has some pretty talented minds too.

I wouldn't be surprised if the workarounds already exist. There's a whole movement of people hacking their farm equipment because John Deere support is so hard to deal with.

It's bullshit they even put this capability in their equipment, and quite a few security experts have said their garbage has tons of vulnerabilities.

 

[Aus_Schwaben]

Tractors aren't exactly difficult for a state-funded team to splice in replacement controllers to get them moving again. Pretty much doing what hot rodders do when faced with the increasingly locked down ECUs in cars like the new Corvette. Install a piggy back ECU of your liking and do what you want.

ETA: Just to clarify, they'll be able to certainly get the tractors working, but perhaps without all the fancy automation and assistive tech operational. That's not to say they won't be able to crack that egg and enable the whole kit, Russia has some pretty talented minds too.

It was just a couple of years ago it came out that farmers were using Russian hackers to fix their John Deere equipment. Between the travel time, the backlog at the dealers, and the costs of using a "factory authorized" shop, the farmers could not afford the delays and costs.

They found there were hackers that could fix their gear for as little as $100 where it sat and get them back to work. So I suspect it will not be long before the equipment is operational again.

 

[Axxe55]

I wouldn't be surprised if the workarounds already exist. There's a whole movement of people hacking their farm equipment because John Deere support is so hard to deal with.

It's bullshit they even put this capability in their equipment, and quite a few security experts have said their garbage has tons of vulnerabilities.

From what I have read a couple of years ago, there are some lawsuits being filed against John Deere because the technology doesn't allow the owner of the equipment the ability to work on his own equipment without using the dealership support.

ONGOING COVERAGE: Right-to-Repair Impact on Dealers, Deere, Other OEMs

John Deere announced on Dec. 4, 2023, an enhanced self-repair solution, available initially in the U.S. through its Equipment Mobile app, enabling customers to remotely download secure software updates directly to embedded controllers on compatible 4G-connected John Deere equipment. This update...

www.farm-equipment.com

John Deere Faces Growing List of Right-to-Repair Lawsuits, Wants Consolidation

Six more class-action lawsuits have been filed against John Deere, including two new cases in Illinois and one each in Alabama, Tennessee and Oklahoma.

www.dtnpf.com

Senate introduces bill to allow farmers to fix their own equipment

The legislation is part of the broader "right to repair" movement opposing repair restrictions.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Axxe55]

 

[popper]

All caused by Bill Gates and M.S. in their original SW rental vs purchase because they wanted to avoid law suites due to bad coding.