One security researcher had a brilliant idea. He would take out a vanity license plate reading NULL. To everyone around him, it would be a joke. To the California DMV, it would give him a free pass.
The idea was that if the DMV computer system saw a plate called NULL, it would assign all tickets to the waste bin.
He was a little too smart for his own good because the opposite happened. He was immediately assigned every ticket for an unplated car, he told the conference Def Con. Pretty soon he had about $15,000 in traffic tickets.
The police and the DMV told the snarky researcher to change his plate. He refused. So, the private company that administers the database removed the fines, but fines are still showing up.
Since fines are being removed now, Bruce Schneier, of Schneier on Security, wonders if he really does have a way to get rid of all his traffic fines.