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from the but-they-still-steal-the-contents dept.
The NYT reports that in 1990, New York City had 147,000 reported auto thefts, one for every 50 residents but last year, there were just 7,400, or one per 1,100 for a 96 percent drop in the rate of car theft. There's been a big shift in the economics of auto theft: Stealing cars is harder than it used to be, less lucrative and more likely to land you in jail. As such, people have found other things to do. The most important factor is a technological advance: engine immobilizer systems, adopted by manufacturers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These make it essentially impossible to start a car without the ignition key, which contains a microchip uniquely programmed by the dealer to match the car. "It's very difficult; not just your average perpetrator on the street is going to be able to steal those cars," says Capt. John Boller, who leads the New York Police Department's auto crime division. Instead, criminals have stuck to stealing older cars.
Now a startup in Chile is working on an unstealable bike by making a lock out of the frame. The only way to steal it is to break the lock, which implies breaking the bike. Or you could try painting your bicycle pink.
(Score: 1) by captain normal on Wednesday August 13 2014, @01:56AM
Just 2 weeks ago a friend of mine had his new Lexus stolen when he parked near the Wells Fargo Bank on Van Ness Ave in San Francisco. He was only in the bank for a few minutes, when he came out the car was gone. The police told him that thieves now have the ability to use the electronic locking system to open the car and start it.
http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=9826 [net-security.org]
http://www.cnet.com/news/expert-hacks-car-system-says-problems-reach-to-scada-systems/ [cnet.com]
Maybe in New York City there is no reason to steal a car because no one drives there. More than half of New Yorkers don't own a car or even want one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._cities_with_most_households_without_a_car [wikipedia.org]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 13 2014, @01:59AM
> there is no reason to steal a car because no one drives there
Yogi is that you?
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday August 13 2014, @02:11AM
Time to install a manual disable switch.
(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:14AM
A friend of a friend had a valve on his fuel line. The car starts alright but it comes to a halt a few miles away.
1702845791×2
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:54PM
The added bonus to your solution (here in Ontario anyway) is that theft is generally covered by comprehensive insurance, where breaking into a car to steal it and failing is considered vandalism, which has a deductible.
(Score: 0) by anubi on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:28AM
My favorite is the undersized slow-blow fuse or timer in the ignition circuit.
It lets the thief get the car started where he has it all nice and quiet... then the car goes right out on him right when he gets onto the highway - and now he's the center of attention.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @06:08AM
So, let me get this straight...
You park the car, open the hood, find the ignition circuit fuse, pull it, replace it with a undersized one, then close the hood, lock the car and walk away. Then you reverse the entire procedure upon return?
And you do this every friggin time you park just on the OFF CHANCE your car might get stolen?
Let me get my phone, I need to call 1800bulshit.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:02PM
Eh, not necessarily. You could have:
Then it automatically arms whenever you turn the ignition off, and all you have to do is get in, start the engine, and push the button. If you forget or wait too long to push the button, then you get to go replace the fuse, and try again, but for normal operation you don't need to access the fuse box at all.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @09:47PM
If you are going to put in a hidden switch, why in hell would you need anything more than a hidden additional momentary contact on the starter relay line?
Why dick around with fuses which you then have to find a way to wire around?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @05:57PM
If your objective is to prevent the car from being stolen, you're absolutely right.
AIUI, anubi's objective is to cause trouble for anyone who steals his car, which makes some sort of delay-based immobilizer preferable, because a mysterious breakdown after you start the vehicle and get underway is more trouble than simply failing to start the vehicle and moving on to the next target.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday August 14 2014, @07:43AM
I did not go far enough... however you filled in the blanks pretty well. I have an old-style capacitive-discharge ignition circuit. It draws more amperage as the engine RPM increases. It pulls about 3 amps at 3000 RPM, so hiding a 2 amp slow-blow inline fuse and hidden bypass plug just gives me an opportunity to frustrate a theft attempt by introducing a delayed ignition failure. If it fails to start at first, the thief is just apt to trace it out and bypass it with a piece of clip wire. If everything appears to work normal, he starts the car, and it seems to work. I am hoping he will take it onto one of the main streets or freeway, where the now unbypassed fuse will blow and leave him with another troubleshooting exercise to do - but this time he's in everyone's way.
Its an old carbureted car, so it's pretty easy to steal.
So, in my case, I figured security by obscurity. There are many things that do not look like switches, but can be used as such. Simple things like a molex connector whose plug is just a loop-thru. Even 1/4" stereo phone plugs can make dandy little power receptacle/switch assemblies. You can remove the plug that bypasses the fuse when you feel you need a little extra security.
If I really want to go whole hog on something like this, I remove the distributor rotor and take it with me. Useful when I abandon the car all day while hunting. However that requires a bit of finangling under the hood. Rotor removal does not prevent theft, but the guy has to go find another rotor or tow the car. Its no longer as simple as clipping a bypass wire in the right place.
I like the gasoline valve idea Cafebabe posted. If I find a nice little 12V solenoid valve, I might put one of those in, too.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:58AM
Your first link says:
"This was no theoretical exercise, as the researchers were able to load new firmware onto their own circuit board and, by plugging the board into the car's internal network"
so that means they had access to the inside of the car.
Your Second Link says:
"remotely by hacking the cellular network-based security system."
or you have to have a cell plan for your car.
( a poor-mans "onstar" that uses cellular rather than satellites.
Lexus Link was a private-labeled brand of OnStar, operating on Verizon Wireless' cellular network,
which is probably what he had, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexus_Link [wikipedia.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 13 2014, @09:48AM
All you really need to do is get the trunk popped, pretend you're putting stuff in it, get access to a can-bus line in the trunk, wire your doodad into it, and presto you've now got network access to some shiny expensive car.
There are a couple catches here: if the car has motion sensors that would trigger the alarm, if there's a trunk latch trigger, if the unlock circuit and the ignition use different authorization mechanisms. Fundamentally however, wireless access can get you into the car and even if the ignition system is too secure to crack wherever you plan to steal it getting yourself physical access to the car's network is often enough to either bypass the immobilizer or reflash the pcm to ignore it.)
I doubt anyone serious about stealing a current-generation high-line car doesn't use access to one to disassemble it to find exploits. Alternately they could use an auto shop's electronic service manual to map out possible weak spots, although this would put you at higher risk of failure since you haven't had a hands-on opportunity to see what will or won't trigger the alarm/immobilizer/tracking in a 'real' situation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday August 13 2014, @01:35PM
If the mirrors have CAN I/O for positioning them then the mirror can be popped out and the CAN bus accessed.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday August 13 2014, @11:11PM
It's possible they don't. I'm pretty sure my Volvo does not use CAN for the mirrors, but instead uses the simpler and much slower LIN bus [wikipedia.org]. CAN is used for higher-performance applications in the car.
(Score: 2) by Darth Turbogeek on Wednesday August 13 2014, @11:47AM
One of the truths about modern car theft is that the modern thief is less likely to be a joyrider or opportunist and more likely to be specifically targeting your car and has a flatbed.
The best security systems dont work if you winch it onto the flatbed. A good grab crew can have your car gone in a few minutes. Sure there's the real high tech guys but frankly a flatbed is a pretty damn good way to steal a car.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by evilviper on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:49PM
LoJack does.
A cell phone left under the seat does.
Hydrogen cyanide is a delicious and necessary part of the human diet.