Thieves Love Push Button Ignition Cars

Push button ignitions that don’t require you to insert a key have become the standard in the automotive industry, but they’re allowing tech-savvy thieves to steal cars with ease. It seems far too few people understand the risks until it’s too late, learning later they can take simple steps to secure their ride against theft.

Classic cars destroyed in a tragic dealership fire.

To steal modern rides, criminals are capturing the weak radio signal transmitted by the key fob using a device which then amplifies that signal. A second device then captures it while a thief is standing right outside the vehicle, tricking the system into believing the fob is right there. They can then open the doors and start the engine, making the theft a breeze.

The simple way to stop this from happening is to put your key fob in something called a Faraday cage. There are small bags which when you put your fob inside block the radio signal, keeping thieves from standing outside your house at night to intercept and amplify it.

We hadn’t heard of another trick until we recently ran across an ABC News report in Australia. It mentions someone putting their keys in the microwave to block the signal, which in that case didn’t work. A Faraday cage doesn’t cost that much and you can find them for sale on the internet.

While having cameras can be a deterrent, that report also mentions one case where thieves used a WiFi blocker to keep the security cameras on a home from recording while they stole a vehicle. You can go with wired cameras, but there are ways to attack those as well.

This is why having a multi-layered approach to securing your car is wise. Don’t just rely on a Faraday cage and cameras. There are other devices like kill switches and GPS trackers which can help with preventing theft or recovering your ride if it is stolen.
What’s scariest about the ABC News report is a mention of how in one case, the thieves hacked a BMW the day before they stole it. That allowed them to see through the driver’s profile the location of the car remotely so they could plot when to swipe it. We know there are vehicle security companies out there which make solutions for beefing up the technology side of cars, so researching that might be worth your time as well.

In other words, you don’t have to just hope thieves leave your ride alone. You can take steps to at least make it more difficult to swipe if not stopping criminals dead in their tracks so they just move on.

Image via Katie Meadors-Young/Facebook