RFID Enabled Cars Can Be Stolen

Filed in archive Privacy and Security on August 7, 2006

It was probably ten years back when the growth of Eastern black markets gave a boost to auto lifting. It was a pain in the neck for insurance companies who wanted new security precautions and in response to this in 1995 BMW came up with a sophisticated antitheft system based on RFID chips. This was implemented by Japanese and U.S. manufacturers in their high end models. It was quite effective for a few years and thefts in cases of Ford Mustang dropped to an astonishing level of 70% in the year 1997 as compared to the year 1995 but auto thieves are a smarter lot. They know how to find out their ways.

RFID cars can be stolen. Thieves use a number of ways to break open into a RFID car. They could disable RFID reader by removing a fuse, steal RFID enabled blanket from the dealership, find out the spare RFID key in the manual in the glove box or probably use a semi secret sequence of pulls on the emergency brakes. The biggest problem encountered is when insurance companies fail to acknowledge that RFID cars could be stolen and refuse to compensate for it.

Just read the incident below to understand the whole situation

Last summer Emad Wassef walked out of a Target store in Orange County, California, to find a big space where his 2003 Lincoln Navigator had been. The 38-year-old truck driver and former reserve Los Angeles police officer did what anyone would do: He reported the theft to the cops and called his insurance company.

Two weeks later, the black SUV turned up near the Mexico border, minus its stereo, airbags, DVD player, and door panels. Wassef assumed he had a straightforward claim for around $25,000. His insurer, Chicago-based Unitrin Direct, disagreed.

Wassef's Navigator, like half of all late-model domestic cars on the road today, is equipped with a transponder antitheft system: The ignition key is embedded with a tiny computer chip that sends a unique radio signal to the vehicle's onboard computer. Without the signal, the car won't start. And Wassef still had both of his keys.

The insurance company sent a forensic examiner to check out the disemboweled SUV in an impound lot. The ignition lock, mounted on the steering column, had been forcibly rotated, probably with a screwdriver. The locking lug on the steering wheel, which keeps it from being turned when the truck is not in gear, had also been damaged. But the transponder system was intact. The car could have been shifted and steered, the investigator concluded, but the engine couldn't have been turned on. "Since you reportedly can account for all the vehicle keys, the forensic information suggests that the loss did not occur as reported," the company wrote to Wassef, denying his claim. The barely hidden subtext: Wassef was lying.

Thnx Brad & Cory