Your keyless car can be hacked for as low as $20

Are you a tech savvy person? Do you prefer loads of hi-tech stuff on your car? Does your car have a keyless entry key fob? Well, you are in grave danger. Someone can drive away your car with the help of cheap hardware, literally.

A group of Chinese researchers has shown the world that some cheap $20 hardware from China can let them drive away your BMW or Mercedes without any hint of stealing it. Their cheap hardware simply fools the car into thinking that the key is nearby, thus commanding it to start the engine.

The team of researchers have reverse engineered the radio signal from the key fob and are able to convert that signal to data and then re-send that data at a much lower frequency, which allows for the far greater signal range. If all that goes above your head then consider this – they have built a range extender for the key fob of the keyless entry system of your car.

There are two people required for this to work. One must stay in the vicinity of the key fob with the device capturing the radio signal, which then transmits the signal up to 1000 feet away to the receiver device and fools the car’s unit to start the engine and drive away. However, if the engine is switched off after being driven off a considerable distance, then the thieves are out of luck as the engine won’t start again.

The researchers have reached out to all major car manufacturers regarding the issue and have suggested ways of fixing this issue. After all, it is sad to see someone’s dear car being driven away without any hint of it being stolen.