Is It Safe to Put Car Keys in a Microwave?

How To Pro­tect Your Car from Key­less Car Theft

The end of the day is tir­ing! You just want to ditch your things by the door and get the ket­tle on when you get home. Are you one of those peo­ple that chuck their car keys in a bowl by the front door? Mak­ing it easy for the morn­ing commute. 

Did you know that you’re doing some­thing that could cost you thousands? 

If you’re the own­er of a key­less vehi­cle and your car fob is kept near your front door, you’re among 96% of motorists that are vul­ner­a­ble to being vic­tims of key hack­ing. A high-tech tech­nique that allows thieves to gain access to and take off with your vehi­cle in a mat­ter of min­utes. We’ve bro­ken down what key­less car theft is in a pre­vi­ous blog. 

Below we’ve list­ed some effort­less steps to help keep your pre­cious car safe and hope­ful­ly keep oppor­tunis­tic car hack­ers locked out.

Key­less Car Theft Explained

But first, here’s a quick break­down! Key­less car theft, oth­er­wise known as​‘relay theft’, is where the sig­nal from a key fob from a​‘key­less entry’ car is cap­tured by a thief stand­ing close to the vic­tim’s house using a device, with an accom­plice stand­ing next to the vehi­cle who can then open the car once their equip­ment detects the vic­tim’s remote. 

1 – The device trans­mits the sig­nal to anoth­er thief who is stand­ing close to the vic­tim’s car. 

2– This then​‘tricks’ the car into think­ing the key is close by, there­fore allow­ing the vehi­cle to be opened and the igni­tion started. 

You can see an exam­ple of key­less​‘relay theft’ here, report­ed by the BBC.

Keep Your Keys Safe

And by this, we don’t mean keep­ing your key­less fob in a bowl or hook in the hall­way, as this offers lit­tle pro­tec­tion against key­less car theft. 

Now, here’s where it gets fun­ny! Here at 3D Autokeys, we’ve heard it all, keep­ing your keys in the microwave or fridge overnight. We get it; these places do block the sig­nal between your key fob and your car. How­ev­er, it’s not safe to store your keys in the microwave. We’ve seen severe dam­age to kitchen appli­ances and car keys alike. Even worse, it could lead to a house fire if not controlled. 

“I’ve had microwaved keys a few times now. Cus­tomer was quot­ed over £700 to fix that’s just for one key from a Hon­da deal­er. we did two after­mar­ket keys for £230!”, Glen, 3D Autokeys Technician. 

For the great­est pro­tec­tion, we rec­om­mend using a Fara­day pouch. They’re a small, afford­able option and will pro­tect your keys with­out the risk of acci­den­tal­ly dam­ag­ing them. How­ev­er, keep it away from doors and win­dows because their sig­nal-block­ing capa­bil­i­ties vary.

Turn Off Blue­tooth and Wi-Fi When Not in Use

To avoid hack­ers tak­ing advan­tage of your car’s open wire­less con­nec­tions, dis­able Blue­tooth and Wi-Fi when you’re not using them. Hack­ers can use these open wire­less con­nec­tions to take con­trol of cer­tain parts of your car, access its con­troller net­work, and even steal valu­able per­son­al data.

Why You Should Check for Car Soft­ware Updates

If you don’t update your car’s soft­ware reg­u­lar­ly, it may be vul­ner­a­ble to hack­ers who can take con­trol of the steer­ing wheel or steal valu­able data. So always check for soft­ware updates and con­tact your garage or man­u­fac­tur­er when available.

Check The Doors Are Secure­ly Locked

Do not just press your key fob and wait for a click or flash­ing lights to sig­nal that your car is locked. Instead, check each door is secure­ly locked with the han­dle. This may seem obvi­ous, but you would be sur­prised by the num­ber of peo­ple who do not lock their cars. This is prime time for thieves to try their luck; they often spend their time trawl­ing streets, sim­ply check­ing car doors to see if they are locked.

Don’t let yours be the unlocked car they land on! 

Low-Tech Ways to Pro­tect Against High-Tech Threats

Even though steer­ing locks may seem old-fash­ioned, they are still effec­tive deter­rents against car theft. On the con­trary, sim­ple mea­sures like this can pre­vent thieves from dri­ving off with your car in the unfor­tu­nate event that they man­age to unlock it.

Keep Track

Although installing a track­ing device in your car won’t stop it from being stolen, it could poten­tial­ly improve your chances of find­ing and return­ing your vehi­cle to you after it’s been stolen.

Hide Valu­ables

Many thieves are oppor­tunis­tic and will strike if they see some­thing valu­able and worth steal­ing; it’s best to con­ceal valu­ables in your car by putting them in the glove com­part­ment, boot or under the seat.

Check your insurance

It’s always worth dou­ble-check­ing what your car insur­ance cov­ers and does­n’t in case of an accident.

In the bat­tle against key­less car theft, you can take sim­ple steps, whether check­ing for reg­u­lar soft­ware updates or fit­ting tried-and-test­ed steer­ing locks.