Using a Freezer Faraday Cage to Protect from Theft

New York Times journalist Nick Bilton’s Prius was almost stolen electronically three times, so he goes looking for an answer. He finds a clue from a Toronto Police warning, which leads him to a guy in Switzerland, who explains what likely happened.

The attack – boost the car’s keyless entry signal range to trick it into unlocking.

The defence – store keys in a makeshift Faraday cage (like a freezer) where signals cannot get in or out.

This was my Friday news story for the paper.

Read it online at Autonet.

Blog tag = Auto Security

 

 

Went Armoured Car Shopping

It’s a Conquest ‘Evade’.

Built on a Ford F550 Super Duty chassis, choose the diesel engine for the extra 140 lb-fit of torque.

400 square feet of cabin space finished with luxury finishings; night-vision cameras front and rear; humidors, Xbox, TV, fridge, a black box, a gas attack defence, name it get it.

The base model is $579,000 USD. But I bet after the extras, it’d come closer to $800K.

It’s a moving vault.

And these photos aren’t accurately showing how ENORMOUS it is, like 100″ high, 13,00o-ish lbs enormous.

The 238 L fuel tank seems small to me, spring for the upgrade.

Built by Canadian company Conquest, they’ve exported every one of their vehicles, not one has been sold to a Canadian. Lots ship to China and the Middle East.

The vehicles are handmade in their shop north of Toronto, but it’s bad form to post those photos.

The company had kept a low profile, until recently. A few weeks ago, they set-up a test-drive event downtown Toronto and invited the press. I’m the only journalist to have visited the the shop though, ha. Read Peter Cheny’s article, he took it to Kensington Market nice.

Here’s the specs for the model one lower, the ‘Knight’; couldn’t find details on this one.

Note the GVWR :O

It has electrically-charged glass, sometimes called Smart Glass – by electrically-charging the glass, the opacity can be controlled.

How I’d attack the vehicle:

To see one drive by, I’d assume there must be something very valuable inside, to be so heavily protected; therefore it might make a good target.

What about the iPad that’s running the TV via Bluetooth, how about hopping onto the vehicle’s network that way?  Maybe the vehicle is its own Hotspot?  Is there any WiFi bleeding out?  Those externally mounted cameras are probably providing a live feed to the occupants laptop or phone…

It’s highly unlikely the passenger would be without a cell phone, so it’d be worth it to capture their traffic … sitting two cars behind with a laptop and antennae, grab some email passwords; hold data for ransom; grab sensitive photos then blackmail; dealers choice.

The defence would be a Faraday cage; one that could be turned on/off. Could make a nice addition to this vehicle.

But think about it eh, how different life would be, if you had to move around in something this secure, to stay safe.

Fun to think about, wouldn’t want to live it.