Over the last 15-20 years, automobiles have been continuously integrated with technology. As a result, we see cars everywhere that connect to satellites, transfer information to our phones, access our contacts, and operate without keys. But while we applaud all these innovations, there is a very important point that we miss; hackers.
Although manufacturers seem to provide us with the conveniences we have mentioned, hackers’ technical knowledge is greater than both ours and the manufacturers. Of course, there would be a penalty for connecting all cars to the networks that these people could access by finding loopholes. This is exactly the mysterious vehicle theft method we have been seeing lately.
Let’s see what happens first. What exactly are these people doing, checking the vehicle doors and going back and forth in front of the house?
First of all, we see that the thieves arrive in front of the house in a different vehicle. While one of the two people is taking care of the vehicle, the other is waiting at the door of the house as if he is performing a ritual. Then we see that the vehicle is unlocked. After a while, the vehicle starts even though there is no key, and the thieves take the car and run away.
Before explaining the method, you need to know:
When we want to unlock keyless vehicles, our car sends a signal that only the car key can respond to. Then, when the key responds to this signal, the locks are opened. But it doesn’t end there. Because in order to start the car, the key must be inside. To understand this, when you want to start the car, there is a signal transmission again.
So, in the first stage, our car turned on the key and said “hey, is that you?” When he asks, our key says “yes” and the door opens. When we want to start the car, most of the time we say “you are here, right?” ” he asks and as soon as our key says “of course” we are ready to go.
What are thieves doing?
In the first stage of the video, while the thief next to the vehicle is struggling with the door handle, the other one is carefully approaching the front of the house. What the thief wants to do here is to pull the door handles and make the vehicle look for the key. In other words, our car senses an action and calls out the key to unlock the locks, and the thief wants to trigger exactly this.
When this signal is triggered, the thief’s device next to the vehicle transmits this signal to the other thief’s device. This thief, who seems to be performing a ritual, is trying to contact the key inside the house. Most of the time, the range of these devices is around 10 meters. When this signal is transmitted to the switch, our switch transmits the correct signal back.
In other words, the vehicle actually asks the key “Is that you?” The question is conveyed to the key through two thieves. When the key responds, “Of course, it’s mine,” this signal is transmitted from the thief’s device in front of the house to the one next to the car. When the car receives this answer, it opens the doors.
Sometimes this is not enough.
Because although thieves can get into the car, the car may not start because the key is not inside. For this reason, when the first thief enters the vehicle, the thief in front of the house walks away and comes back. In this way, it resets the connection.
When this process is repeated while the thief is inside the car, the car thinks that the key is really inside and the thieves easily get away. Of course, it is also possible that there will be no need to reset the connection if the Start/Stop button is pressed while continuing without interrupting the signal.
Now the real question is this: Automobile manufacturers will continue to use sentences such as “we provide this much security, we prevent this” in their marketing. But does someone have to be victimized in order to close such gaps? Because despite all the software, the safest method seems to be to bring one of the tires home after parking the vehicle. Ironically, this has nothing to do with software.
Of course, if you want to take precautions yourself, you can keep your keys in metal boxes that prevent signal transmission. In this way, the second thief’s communication with the key is prevented.
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