High-tech car theft: How to hack a car (CBC Marketplace)

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we are in the middle of a mystery trying to track down a device that could be making these cars and yours open to attack by thieves our search for that device is about to uncover a surprising new world of cars and crime watch this home security video it's the middle of the night in Long Beach California two suspects approached two cars parked in someone's driveway with little effort the first man opens the first vehicle and in he goes the second man approaches the other vehicle and with a slight pause he too is in he seems to have something in his hand could that be the mystery device the Long Beach Police Department is baffled by a series of high-tech auto thefts across the continent NBC 5 is learned of a new way thieves are breaking into your cars in the same scenario and the same ruse ohms it is a crime catching on here in Winnipeg and we have video of it it's like they have their own keys one guy has something in his hand then he walks over to the Toyota and bingo it opens so how do they do it our trail leads us to Washington and to some victims of car theft Showtime who happened to be two of our very own colleagues wait hello mo Alice Cooper mother ideal fat desert this song Kristin the tray and Mao selcal phat work for Radio Canada the French side of CBC sure they were on assignment when they found themselves in the middle of a crime story so take me back what was happening that day it's the last day of our shoot so we had checked out of the hotel pack the van with everything all our equipment our like personal luggage and we had one more interview to do as I was leaving I just turned around and with the you know with the zapper just locked the door a witness tells them soon after they left a man approached the van and circled it the man opened the van no problem as if he had a key and within minutes emptied it and me and the cameraman we opened the trunk and when he opened the trunk I thank you guys I couldn't believe that the material the equipment wasn't there anymore it was like looks like a jean you know what I went foggy and I said it took me a few seconds to realize that everything was gone events a minute this list shows they lost about thirty thousand dollars in equipment and personal items did police have any theories about what may have happened when the patrol car came oh yeah they probably stole your your the wavelength or whatever somebody said what are you talking about I had never heard of this and they said yes that happens all the time where they can grab your signal when you're trying to lock the car and after that did you open it this is something that happened in California that was easier than I thought oh my god were you surprised it's that easy that's amazing they just walk right hesitation just boof open the door had these suspects also captured signals using them here to unlock these cars police aren't sure the internet though is filled with theories products and videos that claim to know the TREC scanners jammer and amplifiers that interfere with the unlock code your fob sends to your car but does any of this stuff really work we're in California the car theft capital of the u.s. to meet a guy who says he can prove it's possible Samy Kamkar has a very nice ride he hasn't though always done very nice things he once created the fastest spreading computer virus of all time we've hired Sammy to show us how he can get around car security and to see if he can pop the locks on this 2016 Cadillac SRX so Sammy what is that so this is a device I call roll jam it's a proof of concept that I've created that demonstrates some of the insecurities with vehicles today it gives me the ability to unlock a car when it really shouldn't be unlocking what motivated you to come up with this cars are now pretty much just computers on wheels so like a computer they're vulnerable to various types of attacks so I was just interested in what are the word of the attacks that are possible today Sammy is known as a white hat hacker he tries to expose flaws and security systems before the bad guys do so we'll place a smaller version that basically just interferes with the signal on the vehicle but can his device really hack its way through the latest anti-theft features and this device this is what picks up the signal first he needs to figure out the car's frequencies and program the device after about half an hour time to put this hacker to the test hit unlock try a few times cool so I'm basically taking I'm basically taking that signal so now that signal is programmed in here I can disable this and when I want I can go up to the car and I can unlock it so currently we see it's locked yep can't get in and then oh just using this a device that costs just 30 bucks to build get in all of the cars that are out basically use the same technology you know we've known about it for years and we've all thought it's been relatively secure but unfortunately you know pretty much all vehicles have the same defect face to face with the head of cybersecurity at GM when you see this to get nervous I get nervous anytime researchers show anything shifting into the fast lane this is your market place you'll need to put this online okay just in case just in case detective Paul LaSalle is taking us to a crime scene as we dig deeper into the world of electronic car thefts you've already seen how bad guys unlock your doors and steal stuff using high-tech devices now we're about to show you how they unlock your engine to make off with your entire car into North York there's been a number of occasions in stolen cars have been headless warehouse LaSalle works for York Regional Police just north of Toronto in the past two years his auto theft squad has seen a rise and electronic car thefts there's a place what we'll do is we just park right here and you can shoot through the site they're not gone so there are some containers there cars stolen using those electronic devices you found some in containers just like this just like this more than once police have uncovered stolen cars here ready to be shipped overseas the containers sometimes hold as many as four vehicles often with older cars in front hiding newer models dustin for countries like nigeria so it sounds like some of the thieves have caught up to technology absolutely technical security elements absolutely if there's profit people are gonna put the effort in to to do it right so is it getting easier for some it is because they've got the technology to do it technology that's at work in this home surveillance video lasalle gave us one thief enters the SUV through the back door and lets the other one in the front that thief is holding some kind of electronic device it isn't long before he's got it started and it's another car stolen basically they're they're getting into the brains of the car and getting the car to learn a new key so the key that they bring to the to the scene is simply after a amount of time that they need to reprogram it or simply just driving away so have you actually got your hands on some of these electronic devices yeah do you want to show us them no he won't show us so we go looking for some of those devices ourselves down the road in Oakville Ontario we've heard thieves are using tools meant for legitimate locksmiths guys like Nick McKay who's agreed to show us how they work v-neck yeah how's it going great to meet you no problem so your challenge these keys are gonna stay in my pockets you got to get in this car get it going get out of here sounds good all right show us how it's done I lock the doors will Nick it's his equipment nothing fancy to get into the car the big challenge is to get the car going Oh what is that this is the M VB Pro it's a key programmer okay this key programmer allows Nick to talk to the car's computer so I've got the keys Nick what are you gonna do well I have a unprogrammed key same thing you can see it doesn't work the car at all okay um I'm gonna basically tell the car to accept this as a new key it's the same method thieves are using plug the programmer into the car's diagnostic port find the right make and model and reset the cars immobilizer the immobilizer is what stops anyone from just coming in with any key starting it up and going away Nick's key programmer cost thousands but there are plenty of cheaper knockoffs on sites like eBay that claim to work the same way do you think this kind of stuff could work yes absolutely it's actually really disappointing that they're selling this stuff on eBay because eBay won't even sell lockpicks as they are classified as burglary tools and anyone who's on the internet buying key programming software on eBay more than likely not legitimate eBay tells us selling key programmers could violate their policies they remove the listings we show them and we'll investigate others after about 15 minutes the car is ready for a new key you're gonna add this one in still in its packaging not all thoughts work the same but they can all be reprogrammed like this so I'm gonna put this key up there you're gonna hear a little trip and this Keys tied to it and there we go just like that that's it yep can you programmed yep and you can start this car absolutely all right prove it get out of here now that cars are crammed with so much electronics car companies are in a race to keep them secure from thieves it's a big catch up game what needs to be done is they need to get on top of it quick and from hackers hopefully this will alert manufacturers to actually resolve the issue now that we understand a little bit more about potentially what those attackers were doing it was a GM car that Sammi hacked so we're crossing into Detroit to find out what General Motors thinks about it Jeff massamilla is head of cybersecurity for GM he says he wants to hear from the hackers so we show him Sammis work take it in I guess what I would say is again I'd love to work with Sammy more on this the idea of that attack is pretty interesting maybe not a real-world type of activity but could be applied in a real-world way which is why you know we need to get out in front of that stuff when you see this do you get nervous I mean I get nervous now I get nervous anytime researchers show anything every researchers are very smart and the cyber security it's a very interesting thing cybersecurity experts have to be right 100% of the time researchers or attackers have from you right once so it's a challenge that every industry faces one of the police officers that we had worked with he was telling us if thieves can figure out a way to make money stealing cars they're gonna do it pretty quick but the automotive industry in order to fix it it's gonna cost them money so it could take them a little longer what do you make of that safety and security for customers is the highest priority this is the top of mine for General Motors so I don't I don't agree with that statement at the most principal level from our perspective of the safety and security of our customers is our highest priority GM is the first big car company to openly invite hackers to find flaws in its vehicles massamilla says they've already fixed some things as a result how worried should car owners be about the threat of cyber attacks car owners should know that their vehicles are safe that's the number one most important thing and absolutely we everything like this anything that we see we learn more about it and we address it if you're not convinced there are steps you can take in the mean time and none of them are that high-tech like a lock for your steering wheel and a lock for your diagnostic port anything that'll slow a thief down time is risk and risk is something they don't want to do and even better listen to some guys who've been there so what lesson did you learn do you want to lock your car you press that magic button you're pissed about nobody you close the door just like that never again with the fob learn how to outsmart car thieves and share your tips at facebook.com slash CBC marketplace

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Channel: CBC News

Views: 2,119,557

Rating: 4.6649866 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, publishing, car theft, car hacking, hacking, hackers, cars, thieves, marketplace, cbc marketplace, marketplace cbc, police

Id: ARrlhlQiFzM

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 15min 53sec (953 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 01 2016

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