Relay Attacks: The Biggest Threat In Car Theft?

Relay attacks are quick­ly becom­ing the biggest threat in car theft, with attacks hap­pen­ing all over the world. It’s been report­ed that some insur­ance com­pa­nies will not even insure Range Rovers in Lon­don unless they have secure parking!

How are thieves steal­ing cars? 

A relay attack is done by inter­cept­ing the sig­nal giv­en off by a set of car keys. It involves two peo­ple – one stands by the vehi­cle while the oth­er stands near the house with a device that can pick up the sig­nal from a key fob. This device has the abil­i­ty to ampli­fy and relay the key fob’s sig­nal direct­ly to the car, allow­ing any thief to get in and dri­ve away imme­di­ate­ly. With the hack­ing devices cost­ing as lit­tle as £80, and cars with key­less fobs becom­ing more pop­u­lar, it’s expect­ed that this type of car crime will increase rapidly. 

The cars most at-risk are cars that use key­less fobs, as well as ​‘con­nect­ed cars’ that use inter­net to access maps, music and trav­el information. 

There’s a range of prod­ucts out there to help pro­tect your car, from cheap­er solu­tions to more expen­sive and more com­pre­hen­sive prod­ucts — there’s some­thing for everyone’s budget. 

Low Bud­get

For those on a low­er bud­get, there are key pro­tec­tion wal­lets and steer­ing wheel locks. Whilst they are not as tech­no­log­i­cal­ly advanced, they can still pre­vent vehi­cle theft. 

Key pro­tec­tion wal­lets pro­vide a safe stor­age for key­less fobs so that they can­not be hacked for relay attacks. You can pick your­self one up for about £10, prov­ing them to be the cheap­est form of car theft pre­ven­tion on the mar­ket. Whilst they are extreme­ly cost effec­tive, there is more effort involved as you have to remem­ber to put it in the wal­let, which for many busy peo­ple on the go, is not always their top priority. 

Steer­ing wheel locks may be old school, but they get the job done! They are a great deter­rent for any poten­tial thief and stop any­one being able to move the steer­ing wheel with­out unlock­ing it first. Rang­ing between £30 and £120, you can get your­self a lock on what­ev­er bud­get you’re work­ing to. Proven to be an effec­tive pre­ven­tion of car theft for many years, you can’t fault their suc­cess lev­els. How­ev­er, thieves have learnt ways to break the many types of locks in a short amount of time, allow­ing them to still dri­ve away with your car. 

Medi­um Budget 

The Key­less Pro­tec­tor is one of the best solu­tions on the mar­ket to resolve key­less entry car theft, and the first elec­tron­ic key fob pro­tec­tion in the world! For only £145 you can guar­an­tee your car is pro­tect­ed from all relay attacks. 

The prod­uct works by block­ing the sig­nal from the remote con­trol when it’s not need­ed. The advanced tech­nol­o­gy, ultra-thin cir­cuit board wraps around the vehi­cle remote key bat­tery. The Key­less Pro­tec­tor can then detect when the key is not in use. To reac­ti­vate the key, all that’s need­ed is a dou­ble tap. 

There are mul­ti­ple ben­e­fits for you: 

• Bet­ter vehi­cle security 
• Stops relay attacks 
• Can reduce the risk of theft via steal­ing car keys 
• Does not void the war­ran­ty on the vehi­cle like some solutions 
• Doesn’t com­pro­mise on key­less technology 
• Eas­i­er than get­ting a wal­let out of a bag 
• Auto­mat­i­cal­ly secures the remote when not in use 

Inter­est­ed in this prod­uct? We offer two pack­ages! If you live close to our head office in Not­ting­ham, you can make an appoint­ment to come in and we will fit the Key­less Pro­tec­tor for you. For those fur­ther afield, order online for home deliv­ery to fit it your­self – don’t wor­ry, we’ll give you all the guid­ance you’ll need. 

High Bud­get

For those who are will­ing to come to our head office, we have a more com­pre­hen­sive, next-gen­er­a­tion device that secures your vehi­cle with­out the need for cut­ting wires or adding after-mar­ket key fobs. This is the Autowatch Ghost. For £399, you can get one of the most high-tech, com­plete car secu­ri­ty sys­tems. The major advan­tage of this prod­uct is that it pre­vents car theft, even if your keys are stolen, due to it requir­ing a PIN code. 

What does the Autowatch Ghost do?

• Pre­vents the start of the engine as a PIN code needs to be entered 
• It’s unde­tectable by diag­nos­tic equip­ment used by thieves 
• It doesn’t trans­mit any radio fre­quen­cy sig­nals, stop­ping thieves from being able to detect the device 
• It’s a silent oper­a­tion, mean­ing that there’s no tell-tale click­ing of a tra­di­tion­al immo­bilis­er relay used in oth­er secu­ri­ty products 

Why is it a game changer?

• It stops key cloning and ECU swap­ping as a cor­rect PIN code is need­ed for the engine to start 
• The ghost is a tiny weath­er­proof device that can be installed any­where in the car 
• There’s an emer­gency PIN code over­ride in case the PIN is for­got­ten, the car is sold or a but­ton is broken 
• The service/​valet mode allows your vehi­cle to tem­porar­i­ly start and dri­ve with­out requir­ing the PIN code 
• You can eas­i­ly change the PIN code at any time 

Although this prod­uct is the most expen­sive option, it’s the best way to ensure you have com­pre­hen­sive vehi­cle secu­ri­ty. For more infor­ma­tion about this prod­uct, or to make a pur­chase, head to our prod­uct page (link to land­ing page) and make an enquiry, or give us a call on 0115 952 2772