This is the big trend of recent years: electronic car theft. France is not spared since, according to the latest figures from the French Insurers Group for the identification and return of stolen vehicles, this represented 70% of the acts committed last year.
Hacked contactless keys
The cause is cars that can increasingly be accessed using contactless keys or other access cards.
“Thieves, for example, carry out what are called relay attacks, capturing the key signal and making the car believe that it is nearby. This may be enough to start the vehicle or, if not, use a safe that can easily be found on the Internet for a few hundred euros,” explains Thomas Fournier, deputy general manager of Roole, a company specializing in anti-theft solutions.
For this reason, it is recommended not to leave the key near the vehicle, or even place it in an anti-wave box. It’s quite logical, but you can quickly be fooled if you get into the habit of leaving your keys in the driveway when the car is parked right in front of the house.
It is also easy access for thieves to solutions for hacking vehicles of all types: the most stolen cars are, therefore, widely available models, also sought after for their spare parts and on the parallel resale market.
“It is difficult to say that cars are more vulnerable than before, especially if we take into account that with two cut cables we could steal many models. The threat is simply different with this spread of electronics,” says Frédérique Baron, head of sales at Omichannel in Norauto.
Updates will be made more frequently.
“Manufacturers can identify a safety flaw and correct it in new vehicles, but not necessarily through a recall, which leaves many vehicles vulnerable on the road,” underlines Thomas Fournier. A problem for him:
“While security updates are now common on our computers and phones, this is not yet the case in cars.”
Frequent remote updates, as is the case with Tesla, but not yet widespread among other manufacturers, would allow us to better respond to new faults discovered in cars:
“It is a game of cat and mouse, thieves always have time to find new gaps to thwart protection systems, so it is up to the latter to evolve to find new solutions to these threats that constantly appear.
Increase protection to deter thieves
So what should we do about this threat? Norauto sells various solutions on its network, including two GPS trackers, brands Beepings (189 euros) and Invoxia (130 euros), which allow you to receive an instant alert if your vehicle is subject to suspicious movement.
“The advantage is that the price includes a 3-year subscription for Invoxia and 2 years for Beepings: then you have to have a budget of between 1.30 euros and 9.90 euros per month depending on the model and formula chosen,” explains Frédérique Baron.
Another product: protection to be installed in the OBD socket and installed in Norauto workshops, 322 euros, installation included. It is not sold to take away because it involves changing the beams and also allows the secrets of this protection to be preserved.
“This solution will work as a decoy: thieves will not display any error messages on their hacking devices, but at the end of the operation they will not be able to start the vehicle, which will push them, a priori, to abandon the vehicle.” “.
The idea is still to make the task as difficult as possible for thieves:
“It is not possible to prevent theft 100%: the idea will be to increase the number of anti-theft systems to deter thieves. If they take too long to steal your car, they will move on to another one,” advises Thomas Fournier. .
For example, we can install an alarm, engrave the windows (which will allow the vehicle to be clearly identified even after changing the license plate) or install an anti-theft rod on the steering wheel… Knowing that the latter can be discouraging. the majority of electronic thieves, not very suitable for more traditional protections and which mechanically prevent leaving with the vehicle. Hence the recent return of these steering wheel locking systems.
Finding the vehicle, easier than avoiding theft?
Solution that has also been developed in recent years: trackers. Small GPS beacons hidden in vehicles to be able to find it after a theft.
“Insurance companies now require it for premium or luxury models,” explains Thomas Fournier.
An answer to a reality principle: it is difficult to prevent theft, so it is best to do everything possible to find it quickly.
Since 2015, Roole has been marketing its WeTrak beacon, a competitor to Coyote Secure, but also a more affordable box for around 50 euros, the RX.
For high-end solutions, the strong point remains the ability to quickly communicate a vehicle’s position to authorities, who can then recover it before it leaves France or Europe.
“It happens that thieves leave the stolen vehicle in an outdoor parking lot, waiting to see if it is recovered. If nothing happens for a few days, they can continue their operations,” says Thomas Fournier.
Quite an expensive product, Norauto sells the Coyote Secure, for example, for 270 euros with installation and a subsequent subscription:
“It must be seen as insurance, with a very high rate of recovery of the vehicle and reimbursement of the system and of the rental paid if the vehicle is not found within a period of 30 days,” highlights Frédérique Baron.
He also explains that sales of these products tend to increase after theft figures are published each year, such as daschcams, these small on-board cameras, after the Palmade affair.
Source: BFM TV
