Keyless car hacking

[fredgroves]

At the end of the day if a thief wants your car badly enough he will find a way to get it. No extra locks, tin foil bags etc etc will make any difference. We pay insurance for a reason so if s4it happens it happens.

True but they probably only have one game plan unless your car is a Ferrari.

No point in getting stolen because you won't take notice of warnings of preventable types of attack...

[scanesare]

At the end of the day if a thief wants your car badly enough he will find a way to get it. No extra locks, tin foil bags etc etc will make any difference. We pay insurance for a reason so if s4it happens it happens.

Sorry I disagree with this sort of generalizing. I am guessing more than 99% of the cases are not personal anyway so "if someone wants your car badly enough" don't think that applies to most people here. It's simply a matter of which car is easier to get their hands on. There is hardly only one Golf GTI/ R/ GTD etc. etc. in the country or even city/town. If cars with KESSY are easier to breach then your KESSY equipped Golf (hypothesis here I don't even know if you own one) will always be a higher target than the non-KESSY one of the neighboor. Thieves don't have a reason to stick to a particular car if it is not equipped with the highest vulnerabilties of its time, plenty of others to choose from (talking about mass-production vehicles). As owners I think it makes sense to also make model and equipment choices over the above fact.

[eatontrifles]

This signal extending type of theft is one of the reasons why I've had additional security fitted to mine, they could get in but the car's going nowhere unless it's being towed.

[mcmaddy]

Totally irrelevant if a car has kessy or not. To repeat if thieves want a particular car then they'll steal it. Cars are stolen to order or stripped for parts and they won't care either way if one has kessy or a key fob that you press. Lifes too short to worry about ifs and maybes.

[JoeGTI]

This craic of putting your key fob in a tinfoil bag is faintly ridiculous imo. Should I put a tinfoil hat on my head too before going to sleep? It all reminds me of Saul Goodman’s dad (anyone who hasn’t seen Better Call Saul won’t have a clue what I’m talking about).

Anyhow, if they can get into a car by this method in a keyless car then they can get into a non keyless car by the exact same mechanism ffs! They might have an extra challenge in actually starting the non keyless car but I can guarantee you that if they’re in the drivers seat they will have the means to start it. Somehow. Keyless or not.

As mcMaddy says, if they want the car they will take it , by whatever means necessary.  I don’t believe the pond life in my neck of the woods would know a keyless car from a non keyless either tbh.

[scanesare]

Anyhow, if they can get into a car by this method in a keyless car then they can get into a non keyless car by the exact same mechanism ffs!

How is that? non-KEYLESS fobs don't continuously emit any signal, do they? Unless you mean the split second you press the button to unlock the car or i am completely missing the point.

Still "not every car is the same" shouldn't be so hard to grasp. To begin with, if someone determined enough wants to steal even the US president's limousine there could be a way to do it, sure. I guess we shall just stop any theft discussion then? No, because in the rest of the case I imagine thieves choose a car, say my Golf GTI, as they have guaranteed some income from selling that particular model for scrap, or they act upon request. If signal hacking offers an easy and efficient way to do it in 45 seconds as has been seen then it's reasonable to assume it could be their main plan. So they spot my GTI and try the system. Bad luck, the car hasn't got KESSY, what now? They can go old-school and try some harder and more traditional approaches or... just find another GTI with KESSY, hundreds of them out there anyway. I think I know what I'd choose if I was them...

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying non-KESSY cars are any sort of a fort, car theft did not start in the recent years. But technology is something we all appreciate and embrace, even thieves. If there is an easier way to do it they will mostly stick to that, it's just a matter of increasing your chances. See how they even prefer breaking into a house (where in theory anything could happen inside) to just pick up keys instead of breaking into the car itself. It's not that easy if you don't completely bypass the mechanical limitations any more. I also fully agree with Mcmaddy's point about "having insurance for when the sh1t happens" but I would skip any trivial feature such as KESSY when the possible trade-off is that I might have to go through car theft/replacement process with my insurance company surely - anyone been there knows it's not as easy as having a replacement car waiting for you at your driveway the next day.

[random_nickname]

I have to agree with scanesare on this one. Unfortunately living in Birmingham there is a lot of thieves lurking round every corner and if I can make it slightly harder for these scum to take my car I will.

After having a car stolen last year I am more vigilant for it to not happen again as it's an absolute ballache to go though all of the paperwork and telephone conversations with police and insurance companies and that's before you manage to find a replacement car you like and I do not want to go through it again.

I don't think I am being paranoid by spending £8 on a small protective bag which I put my key in overnight to prevent waking up the following morning to find out someone has taken my pride and joy off the drive.

Most likely someone who has come with a device that can read the key and realises it doesn't work will move onto someone else and if they are hell bent on getting my car and decide to break in etc then like you say I will let the insurance take care of it.

[fredgroves]

If you leave your front door on your house open or with the key in it, most likely you won't be burgled.

If someone decides to break into your house anyway, they will smash a window...

Doesn't mean to say that you leave the door open...

The guys using this amplification attack are chancers. They have the kit, they will no doubt try an entire road/car park of vehicles looking for a mark. They don't care if its your car or your neighbours.

Just make sure that you aren't the mark.

I'd guess sooner or later the insurance company will start not paying out to people who make themselves weak through inaction too - I would if I was an insurer...

[Talk-torque]

I'd guess sooner or later the insurance company will start not paying out to people who make themselves weak through inaction too - I would if I was an insurer...

There's the thing. Keyless has been around on everyday cars for ten years or more, and yet it's not even a question on an insurance proposal form. They will have stats on all of this stuff, so I'd guess chances of losing your keyless car are still slim. This is all a bit "stranger danger" isn't it? As said above, if they want it, they'll have it.

[Duke Dickson]

I'd guess sooner or later the insurance company will start not paying out to people who make themselves weak through inaction too - I would if I was an insurer...

There's the thing. Keyless has been around on everyday cars for ten years or more, and yet it's not even a question on an insurance proposal form. They will have stats on all of this stuff, so I'd guess chances of losing your keyless car are still slim. This is all a bit "stranger danger" isn't it? As said above, if they want it, they'll have it.

Says a lot that this kind of thing + R thefts a plenty have far less of an impact than traffic queue 'you know you don't want to, so ,I won't. The park assist won't crash at 11mph has a huge impact, rightly or wrongly.

Insurance works on that overall maths thing, with a healthy slice of bean counter. Pay out less than expected = good, pay out more = bad.

Far worse to have to shell out for expensive oily bits & be a bit older. With same crappy postcode, I'm paying between 30-50% at most of my last renewal of the admittedly somewhat more exciting, but appreciably slower, Honda R. It was some time ago, but...