How did they not already know about this?
We’re not sure if car thieves in the UK are way behind the times or maybe it’s the media on the island, but a recent report from GBN makes it obvious one or the other is. It talks about the way thieves “silently” swipe vehicles from driveways in a way “you won’t even know they were there.”
Learn the outrageous reason UK police pulled over a driver here.
We thought the report would detail out a new way to attack a modern car’s CAN bus, but instead the report talks about capturing the key fob’s signal and boosting it to a second device held near the vehicle to trick it into thinking the fob is right there.
That’s right, a car theft method that’s been used in North America, and we thought elsewhere, for probably at least a decade is shocking, fresh news in the UK. Warnings about pairs of thieves doing this not only to cars in driveways at night but also outside stores on this side of the pond were everywhere years ago.
But that’s not to say thieves here aren’t still using this method – they are because it’s quite effective. However, there’s a foolproof way to stop this: get a Faraday cage. It doesn’t have to be big, and in a pinch a Doritos bag can even work, but if after walking away from your car you put your keys in a Faraday cage the signal is blocked so potential thieves can’t capture and broadcast it to their buddy.
The really sad thing is the GBN report makes zero mention of prevention, instead focusing on the nightmare insurance claims process people have to go through. But, as Benjamin Franklin famously said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Image via Daniel Andraski
