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In the past, we’ve written articles warning about living room televisions listening to your family’s conversations and cells phones recording your voice when you least expect it. Believe it or not, that’s not the only thing listening but it’s not what you would expect. Your car is also listening… for an electronic signal. Do you have a newer car model with a hands-free fob car entry system?
While it’s convenient not to have to push any buttons or insert any keys when you’re close to your vehicle, the rate of car thefts is rising.
According to CBC, this newer crime is known as “electronic car theft.”Car thieves are even creating simple devices that boost the wireless signal between fobs and cars – without setting off any alarms! By doing this, criminals can open (and sometimes start) a car long before owners reach their rides.
But Aren’t My Car and Fob Codes Unique to Each Other?
Yes, they are; the computer chip codes in your car and fob are designed so that when the signals in both match, the vehicle opens. Here are two examples of how car thieves of hackers can carry out an electronic car theft:
Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Raboud University in the Netherlands conducted an experiment to test how easy it would be to boost a signal and break into a car. If they could intercept a car signal just twice, the possible code combinations drop from billions to ~200,000. At that point, a computer can decipher the code in 30 minutes and open the car.
In theory, someone could sit on your street collecting wireless signals as people run in and out of their vehicles. After another few hours, they could figure out the codes and steal numerous cars overnight. Although this isn’t likely, the risk still exists. But there’s one much more likely way you become a victim of electronic car theft…
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