This smart gun can be defeated with $15 worth of magnets.
There has been a lot of talk the past few years about smart gun technology as an option for keeping the wrong people from using firearms. You may have heard about the German-made Armatix iP1 handgun.
The idea is that the pistol can only be fired by someone wearing a wristwatch-style RFID device. But now, a hacker has found several major flaws with the technology. Watch the fascinating and troubling report in the video from Wired below.
Interestingly enough, the hacker not only found multiple ways to fire the gun without the watch being present, he also found ways to PREVENT it from firing, even with the watch present. That last detail probably won't go over well with gun owners that are usually looking for reliability.
The news about a smart gun being hacked with something as simple as magnets will likely not be good for Armatix. They've made smart guns in 9mm and .22. But they haven't been received very well here in the U.S.
Most retailers in the U.S. haven't been interested in selling the $1,500+ firearm. In fact, two years ago, Armatix filed for Chapter 11 in Germany.
There are only a few companies that seem to be working on smart guns at the moment. Armatix has been the most noteworthy. Mossberg has developed a shotgun that can only fire with a special microchipped ring, but it's still in the design and development phase.
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