The New Way to Steal a Car

A signal booster is the new shim.

The method exploits keyless entry, a once-luxury feature now found in entry-level cars.

I speak with Ted Harrington, co-founder of Independent Security Evaluators, a company that pioneered car hacking.

Very basically:

The Attack

Amplify the proximity radius, and now the key and car are talking when they shouldn’t be. Thief goes in, off he drives.

The Defence

Keep your key fob in a Faraday Cage (no signals can get in or go out)… do this by wrapping the fob in aluminum foil.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

Pretty geeky, and probably beyond the average criminal, right? The trouble is that the online black market is massive and lucrative.

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Blog tag = auto security

 

 

OBDII Ports are About to Become All the Rage

With this year’s arrival of the connected car, you’ll soon start to see and hear all about OBDII… On-board Diagnostics, II is pronounced “two.”

OBDII – the mandatory port, found within 2 feet of all steering wheels, that’s used to access a vehicle’s computers.

Or, plug an internet-enabled device into this port, now you’re driving a “connected car.”

For more details here’s a blog post about them – OBDII Ports

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

It’s the mandatory-since-1996 port used to access the computer in your car, and we’re about to hear a lot more about it as internet-enabled devices start to flood the market and allow us to make any car a connected one.

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Also the 7th paragraph, which I filed under Predictions – we will all soon start locking our OBDII ports.

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Access a Car’s Computer via the OBDII Port

OBDII port – On-board Diagnostics. The II is pronounced “two”.

Each of the 16 pins outputs something specific:

(photo via Wikipedia)

Found within 2 feet of all steering wheels, OBDII ports became mandatory in 1996.

That’s my ’99 VW Jetta.

When you read about car hacking and it says,
“requires physical access to the vehicle”,
that usually means through this port.

Connect an OBD II scanner to see what’s up.

It gives back readouts that look like this.

How to read the codes:

1st character – indicates which system is having the problem.

B = Body C = Chassis P = Powertrain U = Undefined

2nd digit – identifies if the code is generic, or specific to a manufacturer

0 = Generic
1 = Manufacturer specific

3rd digit – indicates which sub-system is having the problem

1 = Emission Management (Fuel or Air)
2 = Injector Circuit (Fuel or Air)
3 = Ignition or Misfire
4 = Emission Control
5 = Vehicle Speed & Idle Control
6 = Computer & Output Circuit
7 = Transmission
8 = Transmission
9 = SAE Reserved
0 = SAE Reserved

4th and 5th digits – variable, and indicate a particular problem

My Jetta output a _lot_ of codes.

Which is why it failed its E-test, so hard, and is no longer on the road.

Couple this OBDII port to the internet,
and a whole new vertical in the auto industry is starting.

Example: Mojio is a (Canadian!) company that is soon launching a cellular-&-GPS device that plugs into this port. It will provide real-time engine analytics, share your car’s location with your contacts, analyze your driving style, and much more, because apps can be written for the device.

I predict insurance companies will use these, “pay only for insurance when you’re actually driving on the road! Imagine the savings!”… like that.

 

 

All New Cars have a “Black Box”

All new 2014 vehicles now ship with a an EDR – Event Data Recorder, or, “black box.”

It constantly records information while the car is in motion, but only saves it in the event of a crash, a few seconds in total.

Information the EDR records: vehicle speed and acceleration, throttle and brake positions, ignition cycles, seat belt usage, velocity changes throughout a collision, and airbag deployment.

More sophisticated EDRs are arriving, which also record GPS data, seat position and steering, plus they continuously save the information.

Read it online at Autonet.ca

Favourite line:

My Prediction – EDRs & Car Insurance –  2nd last paragraph

I predict insurance companies will start to use the data, something like, “connect your EDR to our system, and reduce your monthly cost by paying for insurance only when you drive!

Here comes the “Connected Car”. It’s going to be huge guys.

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WiFi Hotspots are Coming to Cars

This year, our cars will be constantly connected to the internet.  It’s going to be HUGE.

By 2021, the auto industry will have have the highest revenue that’s connectivity-related.

It arrived last year via Audi, and Chevy is a front-runner, with 10 of their models to be offered with 4G and LTE connections by this 2014 summer.

Read it online at Autonet.ca

Favourite line:

It will be interesting to see how the data will be priced, because using the rule of thumb that at YouTube video is 1MB per minute, we’d all be driving down the road just hemorrhaging money. 

Remember my column about War Driving? I wonder how this will affect things like that. I also wonder about the security aspect of an always-connected car.  Remember, you are responsible for hotspot users. 

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