2023-06-29 04:00:00
Stealing a car has become child’s play in Quebec due to technological advances, experts warn, as the value of claims and the number of wrongdoings are skyrocketing, learned The newspaper.
Just yesterday, a vast network of traffickers in stolen vehicles was dismantled in the Quebec region, a situation that is not surprising when you see the figures from the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
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The number of vehicles stolen annually in Quebec has varied between 4,440 and 5,521, from 2016 to 2020. In 2021, it exploded to 8,139, before jumping to 10,505 last year.
Worse still, the total cost of claims for theft has risen from $80 million in 2016 to $372 million in 2022. A hefty bill that affects the premiums paid by policyholders.
Two experts decry the ease with which vehicles – connected to smart keys and phone apps – can be stolen today.
Antivirus software maker Kaspersky, along with two other partners, is developing in-vehicle protection solutions for the next generation of vehicles that will be increasingly connected to their environment and possibly even autonomous. Kaspersky has also produced this illustration showing the potential sources of attacks on a modern vehicle. Illustration taken from the Kaspersky website
“A person with three hours to invest in studying online videos and $400 for equipment available from many online vendors will have everything they need to be a thief,” laments Ryk Edelstein, of 5 -L Technology, a Montreal company specializing in counter-surveillance.
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Is technology not making it too easy for thieves?
“The answer is a resounding yes. The smart key is a convenience much appreciated by motorists, but also by thieves. Their modus operandi is much easier. This is not unrelated to the fact that there has been an upsurge in recent years, “says Jesse Caron, automotive expert at CAA-Quebec.
An example of a smart key. The metal key, on the left, unlocks the driver’s door in the event of a technical problem or if the battery is flat. Photo Martin Lavoie
The organization has publicly denounced this situation in the past.
“Depending on the method of implementation, smart keys may offer little security. As long as the existing method of registering keys with the vehicle control unit is in place, the risk will remain,” Edelstein said.
“The problem can only be solved when the authentication process of the legitimate vehicle user can be completed, so that credentials cannot be intercepted and replayed, spoofed or decoded,” he said. he.
If previously some manufacturers faced security problems at some point, today, flaws are no longer the prerogative of a single brand.
“Before, some vehicles had weaknesses. At a time [vers 2008], Mazda 3 doors might be unlocked with a fist. We saw a lot of them with bumps. Now, smart keys and interfaces are designed by third-party companies,” adds Jesse Caron.
Better-designed phones
For Ryk Edelstein, “your mobile phone is better protected than your vehicle”, not thanks to the possible use of an access code or biometric data, “but rather because of the system behind”.
“The mobile phone is an integrated system with many security features, including, in many devices, a feature called Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). Its sole purpose is to function as an isolated enclave to handle cryptographic security processes to ensure both secure communications between the device and external resources, as well as managing the encryption of data stored in the device. he says.
Riposte
But for Denso International America, a subsidiary of Denso – the second largest supplier of parts for the automotive industry – the keys it produces for many manufacturers are safe.
“Safety and security have been paramount when we have been developing our industry-leading digital key technology over the past seven years. We’ve built advanced security protections into our solution and designed our next-generation solutions to meet the Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) digital key standard. Denso relies on ultra-wideband [ULB] and the CCC standard’s industry-leading cryptography to create robust, secure and transparent solutions for passive vehicle access,” said Andrew Rickerman, Public Relations, Denso International America.
a plague
During Patriots’ Day weekend, Ryk Edelstein likely foiled a major theft attempt at a Montreal-area dealership
“He wanted to find the source of interference preventing all key fobs from communicating with their respective vehicles. We immediately identified a replay attack [le signal d’une clé est d’abord brouillé, ce qui force l’automobiliste à appuyer à nouveau, le temps d’enregistrer le signal] and warned the dealership to be on their guard.”
The criminals were able to seize a vehicle the next morning before Mr Edelstein arrived on the scene and found the device recording key data.
A Montrealer had caught this thief copying the signal from his key in his house last year. Photo provided by Justin Addison
In addition, the Saguenay Police Department published a press release on June 26 indicating a significant upsurge in thefts on its territory. Since May 31, 13 vehicles have been stolen. However, there seems to have been major negligence, since not only 11 of the vehicles were not locked, but, in addition, the keys were in the passenger compartment.
Vehicle theft in Quebec
YEARNAME
AVERAGE COST
TOTAL COST
2016
4440
18 108 $
80,4 M$
2017
5521
19 491 $
107,6 M$
2018
4972
22 327 $
111 M$
2019
5227
23 653 $
123,6 M$
2020
5420
28 469 $
154,6 M$
2021
8139
29 644 $
241,3 M$
2022
10 505
35 431 $
372,2 M$
FROM 2016 TO 2022
The number of stolen vehicles has been multiplied by 2,4
The average cost of each claim was multiplied by 2
The total cost of claims was multiplied by 4,6
Source: Insurance Bureau of Canada
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