30YR W8T

The guns are not what causes the murders to happen, the ones holding them are. One of the saying out there; "If guns kill then erasers cause writing mistakes and cars are the reason people have accidents". Kills me...no pun intended, how society want to remove responsibility from people and blame the cause on objects that require people to operate them......go figure

Knob Jockey

While my comment concerning tin foil is mostly for comedic relief, if you were to RF-shield the fob while it's in your possession, the radio/relay theft system would be defeated.

Of course you'd have to remove the fob from the shielded bag/pouch/purse/pocket/etc. for any of the cars passive functions to work, which might be a bit inconvenient.

But if you are seriously concerned about the type of theft being discussed here, it would at least give you some peace of mind.

torquetube

There are a huge number of bright people willing to develop complex systems to contravene security measures who lack the courage/bravado to commit crimes using actual physical force. Look at computer viruses, copy-protection cracks, war-driving software, etc.

Radio-fob car security has transformed the hotwiring problem into a challenge for the cybercriminal, if you will.

If the Corvette system is truly unusual than it may maintain a certain security-through-obscurity. However, if it shares components with, say, the whole GM lineup, then there's more than enough incentive to develop a countermeasure that works on all their cars, even if it's a big effort.

Actual production costs would be very low. See Sparkfun for examples.

SteveJ

The article reports the cost of the system as between $100 and $1000. The journal article also includes a few pictures, and the device used to enter and start the car has a small coil which mimics the key fob extended from a box on a slim support.

SteveJ

The link to the journal article works again for me. The reference PDF article can be found here:

http://eprint.iacr.org/2010/332.pdf

V1 Vr V2

Yahoo has a story today staing that equipment is available to receive and duplicate FOB signals for theives.

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...h-car-thieves/

CSixDude

The article said that the system could be built for about $1,000. Doesn't sound all that expensive to me.

It will just become the latest gadget that all the car thieves will want to have in their bag, and it will become the newest and easiest way to steal a car. The thief won't have to break anything to get in or fiddle with the ignition lock or anything to start the car. He will be able to simply walk up to the target car, get in, and drive off, and it won't even look suspicious to anyone. And it won't leave a single mark on the car or any evidence it was tampered with. I can't think of an easier way to steal a car without the keys to it.

I'd be willing to bet someone looses a Corvette to this type of theft before the year is over. If you think this isn't a serious threat, you better think again.