Devices Sold Online Allow Thieves to Hack Into Cars in Minutes
- Emergency start devices sold online starting at $1,600 can hack into a car through its wire network.
- The easiest access to car wires is through the headlights, car security experts say.
- Over 1 million vehicles were stolen in the US in 2022, marking a 7% increase over 2021.
If you find someone has been tinkering with the headlights of your car, in what seems to be a pointless, if annoying, act of vandalism, be alarmed. Someone might be trying to steal it.
That’s what automotive cybersecurity consultant Ian Tabor found out the hard way when his Toyota RAV4 got stolen shortly after he found its left headlight unplugged and the bumper around it pulled away.
Tabor, who is the leader of the UK branch of the car security web community Car Hacking Village, got together with car security expert Ken Tindell to find out how the theft happened, as Tindell recounts in a recent blog post.
The pair thinks that thieves gained control of the car’s computer system by finding the internal wires easiest to access — in this case, the ones connecting the headlights to the system — and plugging a hacking device that can be easily bought online into it.
Once it’s connected to the car’s wires, the hacking device sends a signal to the engine control unit via the controller…
