Hackers force gun to blast wrong target and warn any internet-connected device is vulnerable to attack

Professional hackers have managed to crack into a "smart rifle" and make it shoot the wrong target.

Runa Sandvik and Michael Auge, a husband and wife team, spent almost a year working out how to hack a$13,000 TrackingPoint gun, which has a sophisticated auto-aim facility allowing amateurs to hit the bullseye from up to a mile away.

The pair demonstrated their skills on a rifle range, whey they made the weapon shoot a target which was 2.5 feet away from the intended one.

Their research has an ominous resonance, because more and more devices are now being designed to connect to the web.

"There are so many things with the Internet attached to them: cars, fridges, coffee machines, and now guns,” Sandvik said.

"There’s a message here for TrackingPoint and other companies…when you put technology on items that haven’t had it before, you run into security challenges you haven’t thought about before."

TrackingPoint launched its smart rifles in 2011 and has now sold more than 1,000 weapons.

The smart guns come with an advanced scope which allows shooters to input details about wind speed, the distance of the target and weight of the ammunition.

When the trigger is pulled, the gun doesn't automatically fire, but instead waits for the perfect moment when the weapon is pointing in exactly the right direction.

By tricking the gun into thinking it was loaded with heavier or lighter ammunition than the bullets actually loaded in its chamber, the married hackers were able to make it shoot the wrong target.

The pair also claimed to have managed to stop the gun's aiming computer working altogether and disabled the firing pin so the weapon cannot fire at all.

“You can make it lie constantly to the user so they’ll always miss their shot,” Sandvik told wired.

"If the scope is bricked, you have a six to seven thousand dollar computer you can’t use on top of a rifle that you still have to aim yourself," he added.

TrackingPoint founder John McHale said the gun was still safe, because the gun can only be fired when the trigger is pulled.

“The shooter’s got to pull the rifle’s trigger, and the shooter is responsible for making sure it’s pointed in a safe direction," he said.

"It’s my responsibility to make sure my scope is pointed where my gun is pointing.

"The fundamentals of shooting don’t change even if the gun is hacked.”

Earlier this year, the American military research group DARPA unveiled a bullet which could change direction midair, hailing it as a "major breakthrough".

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