# The Cold War Over Hacking McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines

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## Metadata
- Author: [[Andy Greenberg]]
- Full Title: The Cold War Over Hacking McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://www.wired.com/story/they-hacked-mcdonalds-ice-cream-makers-started-cold-war/

## Highlights
- But after years of studying this complex machine and its many ways of failing, O’Sullivan remains most outraged at this notion: That the food-equipment giant Taylor sells the McFlurry-squirting devices to McDonald’s restaurant owners for about $18,000 each, and yet it keeps the machines’ inner workings secret from them. What's more, Taylor maintains a network of approved distributors that charge franchisees thousands of dollars a year for pricey maintenance contracts, with technicians on call to come and tap that secret passcode into the devices sitting on their counters.