4 Reasons Why Even Modern Cars Are Vulnerable to Thieves

You’d think that as technology advances, our security protections would increase. But that’s not necessarily the case. Criminals will find a way to get what they want, no matter how many precautions you put into place. This is even true when it comes to today’s state-of-the-art cars.

The modern vehicle is a marvel of technology, to be sure, but it still has a few areas where it’s defenseless. Here’s a locksmith’s perspective on reasons why your modern car might be vulnerable to criminals with bad intentions.

1. Keys Fail

There are multiple types of auto keys – fobs, remotes, etc. – and all have the potential to break or fail. Batteries only last for so long and other issues can block the signal between your key and vehicle (which we’ll cover more below). The problem with many modern vehicles is they don’t have a backup/emergency key option in case the main key fails. When this happens, your vehicle is vulnerable to thieves, whether the car is running or not. (Also, looking for a backup key or attempting to enter your vehicle yourself can attract criminals, so be careful.)

2. Technology Leads to Hackers

There never used to be a problem with email phishing scams before the invention of email. But now that it’s here, there are email-related security issues we have to deal with all of the time. The same goes for cars. Now that there is new technology being implemented, new criminal techniques are being adopted as well. The more technology your vehicle utilizes, the more opportunities hackers have to upload a virus, take control of the vehicle or get information.

3. Signals Can Malfunction

As mentioned above, many key fobs or remotes communicate with your vehicle wirelessly. These transmissions or signals can get interrupted under the right conditions, such as computer interruptions, electronics failure or something physically getting in between the fob/remote and car. This is a bigger issue than you might think, as signal malfunctions can lead to disabled features and increased security risks.

4. No Single Gatekeeper

One security risk many people don’t know about happens behind the scenes. You see, many modern vehicles utilize a variety of technologies. The problem? These are often separate technologies with different providers and were developed by different companies. As such, there’s no single gatekeeper in control to allow these technologies to communicate with each other seamlessly and enforce strict protocols. There’s no ideal solution for this area (other than interviewing the dealer or manufacturer of the vehicle to better understand the technology package), so just keep this area of automobile security in mind.