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Even after a hacker at Defcon showed that smart guns aren't all that smart, advocates for new firearm technology aren't worried.
At the Smart Gun Symposium in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, supporters discussed how upgrading firearms with gun-locking features like fingerprint scanners and radio-frequency identification tags could help protect police and prevent shootings. They also dismissed concerns that hackers could find ways to trick the features.
Smart guns are seen as one way to stem the tide of violence that's risen over the last decade, with more than 360 mass shootings in the US during 2016. Silicon Valley believes it can help through high-tech weapons with triggers that won't pull in the wrong hands, or that employ a radio signaled lock. After the San Bernardino, California, mass shooting in 2015, then-president Barack Obama called for a federal study on smart-gun technology in the hopes that it would improve firearm safety standards.
Like all connected devices though, smart guns aren't immune to hacks. At the Defcon security conference last week, a hacker who goes by the name of "Plore" demonstrated how he tricked the Armatix IP1 -- a smart pistol that locks unless it's near a watch with the proper radio signal -- using only $15 worth of magnets.
At the symposium, two smart-gun makers played down the threat of hacks against the connected weapons, calling it a "nuisance" but not a roadblock.
Smart-gun makers want more people to try hacking high-tech guns
