The new hacking device caught by car thieves in Holon (photo: Etgar unit in Lahav 433)
The truth, worrying.
Police officers of the Lahab 433 Challenge Unit last week "on the spot" arrested four members of a gang who live in areas suspected of stealing a car in Holon.
So far, a routine event.
But what was less routine was the equipment the police found in the search of the stolen car, which was on its way to the fields: a device that pretends to be the car's remote control, and is capable of unlocking its central locking so that the thieves can get in without breaking a window.
Central locking with remote control is standard in almost all new cars in the last decade.
But this is another less problematic capability of the device.
According to Major General Rotem Levit, a researcher at the Blahav 433 Challenge Unit, the device, known as a khakai or an emulator in Hebrew, is able to impersonate the remote control even if the car has a Keyless system, that is, starting with the button without the need to insert the key into the switch and turn it. The system is based on identifying the key in the vehicle, assuming This is a sign that its owner, or any other licensed driver, is about to drive it.
A car slaughterhouse in the territories.
Belonging to criminal organizations that employ the thieves who go to Israel (Photo: Public Relations)
"It's a device sold abroad as a legal means of breaking into cars, but that's the job of professionals," explains Levitt. "But it also ends up in the hands of gangs of thieves.
This is an expensive device, whose price abroad ranges from 55 to 96 thousand shekels, and comes pre-installed with codes for hacking popular models, mainly Japanese and Korean cars. Because of the price, we currently see it mainly in more sophisticated gangs, which focus on more expensive vehicles."
So what do we do in the meantime?
In the challenge, those who are concerned are advised to equip themselves with a steering wheel lock, until the vehicle tracking and recovery companies, which work in coordination with the police unit, formulate a technological solution to the problem.
The four suspects in the theft of the car in Holon, by the way, three of them are residents of areas, were arrested and brought to the unit's offices in Sioma for questioning and imprisoned.
The Magistrate's Court extended their detention by six days.
In the last year there was a jump in car thefts, mainly due to the jump in the prices of car parts.
Most of the thefts are intended for transporting the vehicle to slaughterhouses in the territories of the Palestinian Authority, where it is disassembled into parts, most of which find their way to garages in Israel, despite the law prohibiting this.
The increase in thefts has already led to a jump in the prices of comprehensive car insurance policies.
Now there is a danger of further acceleration in thefts.
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