Apparently, California's FasTrak toll system isn't all it's cracked up to be, according to Hack a Day. The blog reports that at last week's Black Hat security conference, security researcher Nate Lawson presented not just privacy problems with FasTrak, but "why absolutely no transaction from the tag should be trusted."

Lawson went ahead and purchased one of the transponders the system uses to monitor traffic in order to test it. The transponder is an RFID device with a receive and transmit antenna, a low-power TI micro-controller, a long life battery, and a large analog demodulation section, the report said.

That's not the bad part. The bad part is that it also has no authentication system whatsoever. Someone could walk right over, collect a passing car's transponder ID and use it as their own for free—charging that person's credit card instead—or even just overwrite all the transponders at the toll plaza and create traffic havoc. Fun stuff. (Via Autoblog)