St. Louis Hills Man Says Thieves Remotely Hacked Into His Car 'S Security System Before Taking Items Inside

CBS St. Louis

January 26, 2021

Chris Sullivan said his SUV was locked when surveillance video captured thieves appearing to hack into his SUV's security system with a key and unlock it. Sullivan said he noticed some items were missing and had been moved around in his SUV, which was parked outside his St. Louis Hills home. When he pulled up his neighbor's surveillance camera, it captured a vehicle pull up slowly next to his SUV around 3 a.m. Within about one minute, Sullivan's SUV's headlights flashed on and off. “You can tell the driver gets out of the car goes into my vehicle, he’s in there for maybe 30 seconds, so whatever they’re looking for, they’re looking quick and they’re moving on," said Sullivan. Someone else in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood made a similar post on the Neighbors app about a thief using a fob reader to unlock several cars. “All the great new features in your car also have a downside as well," said Charlie Miller, a cybersecurity expert. Miller said if you have keyless entry for your car, meaning a fob, it's not very difficult for a thief to hack it, even if your keys are inside your home.

“They can set up one side next to your key and one side next to your car, and they relay that signal from the key to the car the car thinks is nearby and it will unlock for you," said Miller.
Miller said the process of relaying that signal only takes seconds. “You can keep your keys not near the outside of your house, like inside somewhere or you can put them in a metal bag, or online I see you can buy bags that you can put your keys in that stops the signal from going out," said Miller. Sullivan is now considering changing some of the ways his keys are stored to make his SUV a more difficult target. “As frustrated as I am with the person that broke into my car, they’re obviously in a different place than I am and I try, I’m gonna try to empathize with that," said Sullivan. Miller said if you were really worried about your fob's signal being hacked, a last-ditch effort could be to wrap it in aluminum foil, which acts as the metal box and prevents the signal from going out.