Car Theft by Hacking -- It is Now Commonplace

 Back in 2014, Rebecca Morales and I in our Stealing Cars: From theModel T to Gran Torino (Johns Hopkins Press) discussed the role of hackers as the new threat to auto thievery. It a well  known possible technique back then, and really as early as 2011 in IEEE publications. But the industry did not completely follow through on the threat -- and note that the above video was done only several weeks ago! There is a pandemic of auto thefts in the U.S. and Canada, some of it due to sloppy theft deterrents, some of it the consequence of a lack of serious priorities from manufacturers. And of course there are careless owners.

But I also think in many cases the rise in auto thefts is many Americans really just see there cars as an appliance, like a toaster, and don’t take special steps to protect them. As longs it is insured, do you really care if someone takes your crossover or SUV?