Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
1–10 of 81 posts
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#2It'd be lovely if there were also penalties for the firms which sell those vulnerable cars, so easily stolen if you have one of the now-banned little gadgets.
Oh well. I'm sure the problem will clear up, once all the crooks have dutifully handed their little gadgets over to the coppers.
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#3It'd be lovely if there were also penalties for the firms which sell those vulnerable cars, so easily stolen if you have one of the now-banned little gadgets. Oh well. I'm sure the problem will clear up, once all the crooks have dutifully handed their little gadgets over to the coppers.
Interestingly this law does not require such a handover.
"the onus will be on someone in possession of a device to show they had it for a legitimate purpose."
"Making or selling a signal jammer could lead to up to five years in prison or an unlimited fine."
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#4So this is a change from the status quo where actually transmitting an interfering signal is illegal to one where having a device that might theoretically transmit an interfering signal is illegal? It sounds like ordering all pencils be made illegal because they can be used to write threats.
I can see why they might want to make this change but I can't see how it can feasibly be defined and enforced without making every LC oscillator illegal. But like most legislation I suppose the reality, and reality of enforcement, don't matter so much as having the law to point to. They'll ignore it most of the time but chose to enforce it arbitrarily if someone rocks the boat. And it's quite a bit of a performative, "We're doing something." move.
>"These devices have no legitimate purpose, apart from assisting in criminal activity...
Expecting street cops to know RF electronics deeply enough to make these judgements of a "legitimate purpose" is beyond foolhardy and the claims of generalized signal generators as having no legitimate purpose is false. They would certainly consider my amateur radio lab equipment to be illegal.
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#5Did they seriously try to call an RF transceiver a jammer?
Also you can literally "jam" anything with anything, I used to have a pair of walkie-talkies from the 70s that were designed to use (what's now used as) the CB band... is that considered a jammer now?
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#6This is a confusing article. I'm not sure what 'scrambling' means here:
Keyless repeaters and signal amplifiers scramble the signal from remote key fobs inside people's homes, enabling criminals to unlock cars.
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#7This is a confusing article. I'm not sure what 'scrambling' means here: Keyless repeaters and signal amplifiers scramble the signal from remote key fobs inside people's homes, enabling criminals to unlock cars. And it talks about banning 'signal jammers'. How is a signal jammer useful for stealing a car? Wouldn't a signal jammer prevent someone from unlocking a car?
The jammer prevents the car from hearing the transmitted un/locking signals while the jammer themselves collects and repeats it later.
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#8This is a confusing article. I'm not sure what 'scrambling' means here: Keyless repeaters and signal amplifiers scramble the signal from remote key fobs inside people's homes, enabling criminals to unlock cars. And it talks about banning 'signal jammers'. How is a signal jammer useful for stealing a car? Wouldn't a signal jammer prevent someone from unlocking a car?
Yes, it would stop somebody's key from working, and that's the entire point, because most key fobs work on rolling ciphers, and if you block one, you can reuse it. Typically the fob will allow like 10 or so presses. It depends on the model before you're forced to re pair to the car. But by jamming it and capturing what it sent, you can then use that to get into the car.
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#9This is a confusing article. I'm not sure what 'scrambling' means here: Keyless repeaters and signal amplifiers scramble the signal from remote key fobs inside people's homes, enabling criminals to unlock cars. And it talks about banning 'signal jammers'. How is a signal jammer useful for stealing a car? Wouldn't a signal jammer prevent someone from unlocking a car?
The jammer prevents the car from hearing the transmitted un/locking signals while the jammer themselves collects and repeats it later.
That, or to prevent the tracker in more expensive cars from doing their job.
In mainland Europe, some high end cars need to be fitted with a GPS tracker for insurance. Thieves will try to jam GPS to those trackers until they're: A) figured out how to disable/remove it, B) fled the country.
Re: Electronic devices used for car thefts set to be banned
#10It'd be lovely if there were also penalties for the firms which sell those vulnerable cars, so easily stolen if you have one of the now-banned little gadgets. Oh well. I'm sure the problem will clear up, once all the crooks have dutifully handed their little gadgets over to the coppers.
I saw an ad recently for a car (Kia?) with a phone app that could sent an unlock/start code to someone else's phone. It was so you could lend your car to a friend without all the hassle of physical keys. What could possibly go wrong?