Maryam Ali recounted her experience , explaining how she sprang into action upon noticing a headlight illuminate her car during the night.
Sensing that something was amiss, she quickly confronted two car thieves, yelling at them to stop. Ali’s home surveillance footage captured the moment the thieves scattered, representing a small victory in the ongoing battle against increasing thefts.
The video also provided a detailed insight into a tactic recognized by security experts, who believe it can be addressed through the adoption of updated security standards.
Speaking from her residence in Pickering, Ontario, Ali expressed her reaction, stating, “I saw the light in my car go on. And right away, something clicked. I said, ‘This is not happening to me.’”
There was a rage that came through. You know, I got really, really angry,” she said.
Other security video shows the thieves scouting the neighbourhood and then settling on Ali’s Lexus.
Rather than go into the driver’s seat, the thieves target the headlights, drilling or hammering through to access its wiring.
The video shows one headlight turn on, and only then do the thieves get behind the wheel, ready to go — exactly the point where Ali rushes outside.
The tactic she interrupted is known as a CAN injection attack, said Durham Autohaus’s Ryan Jaipaul. He says thieves get at the wiring in the headlights and use that to send signals to the car’s Controller Area Network.
Digitally controlling that central hub allows the thieves to command other parts of the car, including unlocking the vehicle and tricking the car into thinking that its key fob is in the vehicle, which allows them to start the car.
“They’re injecting their software through the CAN wires into the vehicle and then hacking it,” Jaipaul said as he watched the video.
It’s one of several types of attacks that treat a car like a computer. And the tech-savvy approach is one that defeats an immobilizer, which stops a car from starting without its key.
Until recently, the immobilizer was a key success in stopping car theft. Provincial figures show a sharp drop in car thefts after it was made mandatory in Canada almost 20 years ago.
But now, thefts are surging again, prompting a national summit in Ottawa last week to deal with the problem.
On Wednesday, the government earmarked $28 million in new money to help stop the export of stolen vehicles that are shipped abroad and destined for Africa or the Middle East.
One major problem is that to thieves using attacks like the CAN injection, cars remain astonishingly easy to steal.
An American agency is proposing new standards that could stand in the way of the CAN injection for new cars.
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