It only seems fitting that in the same week I start working night shifts at Tesco, 50 miles away a branch of the popular superstore is attacked by a potential cyber attack. In one of my favourite news stories of the week, the BBC reported on Saturday that a Tesco in Royston, Hertfordshire left shoppers in a state of mystery as 100s of people were locked out of their cars when their key fobs stopped working. One comment from a woman on facebook described the incident by saying ‘I thought it was some kind of alien phenomena‘.
Alas alien phenomena it was not. As the world becomes more advanced in the use of technology, our cars are becoming smarter and smarter and there’s a high chance that if you’ve bought a new car recently you will have the use of keyless entry or an electric fob. Although this may make our lives that little bit easier, it also adds another target for criminals to exploit. Hertfordshire police have commented and said the cause for the locked cars is not known but “was not being treated as malicious intent”, there’s a high possibility radio jamming devices blocked the signals which are used in remote locking.
I thought it was some kind of alien phenomena.”
Key jammers (transmitters) are extremely easy to buy online and can be used to interrupt signals from key fobs leaving your cars vulnerable to attacks. Low powered key jammers have enough range (around 75m) and power to target an area similar to a whole car park. Back in 2019 whatcar did a test on 7 different models to see how long it took to access the cars remotely and drive them away.
Final Thoughts
In a more detailed post i’ll get more technical and give you some more information regarding the different ways your cars can be hacked but for now i’ll leave you with the link to the BBC article for further reading: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56221408
M.
Barrett Breaking Security 