Car theft... by laptop!

[ZLoth]

Believe it or not, this happened to my co-worker last week. Both he and I work the same shift (5:30 PM to 2:30 AM), and he had parked his car at his apartment complex. When he was about to leave for work... no car! And, yes, he locked it. The police believe it was stolen by laptop. However, it was later located after a signal was sent to shut down the vehicle and locate the vehicle. Still, this is a new vulnerability. He is getting a security upgrade on his card done next week.

From Fortune:

Here's How Hackers Use Laptops to Steal Cars

Remember how car theft was becoming a thing of the past? Well don't look now, but a new generation of thieves have figured out how to defeat the technology that, for a while, made it nearly impossible to steal vehicles.

The technology in question is car keys embedded with microchips. A driver must have the key, which is uniquely programmed to match the car, or else the ignition won't start. Such keys are a feature of nearly every new vehicle and have made hot-wiring a a car–a staple of so many action movies–all but obsolete.

Now, though, it appears that hackers are using laptops to hack into vehicles' ignition systems and drive away.

FULL ARTICLE HERE