#Hassan. Posted October 17, 2021 Posted October 17, 2021 It’s come to something when not even Ethan Hunt, fictional hero of movie franchise Mission Impossible, can prevent his BMW X7 from being stolen. That’s what happened one night in August when Tom Cruise’s SUV was pinched from outside the Grand Hotel in central Birmingham, where he had been staying. The car, which was equipped with a tracking device, was recovered three miles away a short time later. CCTV footage showed three people leaving it with a bag containing some of its contents. The actor was reportedly furious about the incident, and we British motorists should be concerned too. At the time, a relay attack, where the car’s electronic security is fooled into believing the key fob is present, was the favoured explanation. However, weeks later, the police don’t know exactly how it was stolen, only that its electronics were compromised. The incident appears to show that for all their sophistication, today’s cars are seemingly as easy to steal as their forebears were in the 1990s, when more than 300,000 were pinched each year in England and Wales. In 2020, ‘only’ 89,000 cars were stolen, 24,000 down on 2019 – a fall credited to fewer journeys being undertaken during the lockdowns, as well as to improved vehicle security, heightened public awareness and more effective policing. For example, West Midlands Police says that it has identified and closed down more than 100 chop shops – where stolen cars are broken for parts by organised gangs – in the past 18 months. That’s the good news, but the bad news is that last year’s figure is still 20,000 higher than that from 2013. Indeed, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) recently reported a 3.1% year-on-year rise in vehicle crime between May and June. It’s a confusing picture, but not as confusing as the methods criminals employ to steal, and steal from, cars. Here, we survey the state of affairs... 85% of thefts happen during the night, and 39% happen on the owner’s home street 72% of stolen vehicles are never returned to owner 30% of stolen vehicles are written off The entry method in 44% of thefts is opening unlocked doors, with 36% being by mani[CENSORED]tion of a remote-locking signal 39% of items stolen from vehicles are valuables 37% of stolen vehicles are more than one year old but less than five years old The most commonly reported emotional impact of vehicle-related theft is annoyance, at 76% Figures courtesy of the Office for National Statistics, from Crime Survey for England and Wales, April 2019 to March 2020 Electronic compromise Electronic compromise is the term for gaining control of a vehicle by hacking into its electronic systems. Relay attack is one of the best-known methods: a criminal holds a device against the door of the car, amplifying the security signal that the vehicle transmits. Another stands near the owner’s home with a device that relays a pairing signal from the vehicle owner’s key to the accomplice, who then opens the car’s door and starts the engine. Relay attacks often take place on a vehicle owner’s driveway. In a disturbing twist, it appears that some crooks are now disabling home owners’ wi-fi to prevent doorbell video footage being captured as evidence. The NPCC says that relay attacks accounted for a large share of the increase in vehicle crime during May and June 2021. How large can be gauged by the fact that in 2020, 93% of the vehicles recorded as stolen by Tracker, a vehicle tracking company, were taken as a result of a relay attack. Thankfully, car makers are fighting back. In 2019, Ford introduced ‘sleeping key fobs’, which become deactivated when not in use, on the Fiesta and Focus, and earlier this year extended the technology to the Kuga and Puma. These can’t be activated by a relay device. Since their introduction, Fiesta thefts have fallen by two-thirds. Other forms of electronic compromise include having an additional key programmed to the vehicle, mani[CENSORED]ting the car’s electronics via the on-board diagnostics port and swapping out the vehicle’s engine control unit. Many of the devices that thieves use are available to buy online. Pleasingly, there’s little honour among criminals, as a security source explained: “A contact told us that he broke into a new Range Rover with a system that he had purchased for £12,000. It enabled him to get into the vehicle, but it didn’t have the promised firmware that would allow him to start it. He’s now worried that if he returns the device for the update, he might not get it back.” link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/many-faces-modern-car-crime
Recommended Posts