Nospinzone

I live in a small town. Maybe one or two cars are stolen each year, and those are usually stolen by family members of the victim. However, I do go into Boston occasionally. I was just curious, with this new electronic key system, how easy or difficult is it for a thief to start the car and drive off. Any technical experts (or car thieves gone straight) know how secure the electronic keys are?

Craig B

That's why I have insurance. They can have my car if they want to steal it.
Someone posted a story here a while back. They said, someone was sitting at Starbuck's and I guy walked up and sat next to him with a lap top computer. The next thing the guy knew, his car was gone and the story said the guy stole his code over the computer and drove off. I don't know if this if for real or not...

Craig

Luxofreak

It could be real, after all the key is recognized by the car through some sort of frequency (RF or something else) so I don't doubt that could be a real story.

One thing is for sure, the crook had to have a very specific software to be able to capture that info and clone it to another key.

gatorcb

Actually you wouldn't need a key...just something to play back the code received on the laptop. The technology can be hacked

encore888

There was an incident reported on the IS forum where somehow someone was able to hack into an IS and unlock it, steal stuff etc. IIRC.

Vigilance is key, parking in surveillance-protected areas, not keeping valuables stored inside/visibly, etc.

Also the 'flat' key should be kept at home, not left in the owner's manual. Recently there have been a string of RX break-ins on the east coast, where the thieves go for the flat key.