Bought a new car and think it's safe from theft? Think again! We heard that there were tools on the market that would allow a person to steal a car in under a minute in some cases. We wanted to test this out so we engaged a professional locksmith and brought him a brand new Hyundai i30 and a brand new Toyota Kluger/Highlander to test his skills using tools bought off the internet.
TAPSY LOCKSMITH: https://www.tapsykeys.com.au/
If you need the services of a locksmith in Australia, please reach out to Tapsy. Big thanks to Chamara for donating his time and skills to help us with this story, we really appreciate it!
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Meeting our locksmith: 2:00
Key background: 2:50
How key codes are obtained: 4:07
Getting into the Hyundai i30: 4:20
Getting into the Toyota Kluger/Highlander: 6:44
Wrap: 8:16
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
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#stealing #cartheft #hyundai #toyota #cartech
TAPSY LOCKSMITH: https://www.tapsykeys.com.au/
If you need the services of a locksmith in Australia, please reach out to Tapsy. Big thanks to Chamara for donating his time and skills to help us with this story, we really appreciate it!
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Meeting our locksmith: 2:00
Key background: 2:50
How key codes are obtained: 4:07
Getting into the Hyundai i30: 4:20
Getting into the Toyota Kluger/Highlander: 6:44
Wrap: 8:16
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#stealing #cartheft #hyundai #toyota #cartech
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 (pig squealing)
00:02 (thudding)
00:21 (pig squealing)
00:29 - G'day, I'm Paul.
00:30 So what you've just seen is kids stealing a car.
00:34 Now you think buying a new car today
00:36 means that you're buying, I guess,
00:37 the latest, safest thing,
00:39 and no one can take your car unless they have the key.
00:41 Well, that is wrong.
00:43 Elbows, car expert co-founder, come in.
00:46 That's footage from your house
00:47 where your new F-Pace was stolen.
00:50 Can you run us through what happened?
00:51 - Yeah, look, some kids broke into the house.
00:53 They got my keys, which I'd left nice and easily
00:56 on the table for them to take.
00:58 Thankfully, I recovered the vehicle,
00:59 but I didn't recover the key.
01:00 So we had to get a new key made,
01:02 and I went to Jag to do it.
01:03 It was a couple of thousand bucks,
01:04 which I thought was crazy,
01:05 but also it was gonna take a long period of time.
01:07 So I put it on Instagram.
01:08 Someone contacted me and said,
01:10 "A locksmith could do it a lot quicker and cheaper,"
01:12 and here we are.
01:13 - So our locksmith friend came to your house
01:15 and basically programmed new keys for your car
01:17 without having your old keys.
01:19 - Correct, yeah, and really quickly too.
01:21 - And I think that really surprised us.
01:22 So what we're doing today,
01:24 we have a new Hyundai i30 and a Toyota Kluger,
01:27 or a Highlander, depending on
01:28 where you're watching this from.
01:29 And what I wanted to do was task our locksmith friend
01:32 to break into these cars
01:33 so we can see how quickly it takes to make a new key
01:35 and basically start the car so that you can drive it away.
01:38 Now, I don't want you to go and buy any of these tools.
01:41 I'm not encouraging you to go start stealing cars.
01:43 What I do wanna do today though,
01:45 is show you how some thieves are stealing cars
01:48 without even needing to break into your home.
01:50 So it's pretty amazing stuff.
01:51 Now, if you haven't done so already,
01:53 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon
01:55 so you can find out every single time
01:57 we publish one of these videos, but let's get started.
01:59 So we are back in the studio.
02:02 I wanted to get back here to have a look at all the footage
02:04 before I run you through how all of this works.
02:07 I also wanna give a quick shout out
02:08 to Chamara from Tapsy Locksmiths.
02:11 It's a business that he runs
02:12 and he was able to give us an insight
02:13 into all the tools that criminals are using these days
02:16 to take cars.
02:17 These are tools that are only really meant
02:18 to be designed for locksmiths to use.
02:20 If you do wanna see more about his business,
02:23 have a look at the link in the description below.
02:24 He's an excellent locksmith.
02:25 So if you do need locksmith services,
02:28 go and check out Tapsy Locksmiths.
02:29 Chamara did wanna reiterate
02:31 that this is not an endorsement of stealing cars.
02:33 These are tools that are designed for locksmiths,
02:35 but based on his experience
02:37 and where he goes to buy these tools for his business,
02:40 which is entirely legitimate,
02:41 that there aren't many checks and balances in there.
02:45 So really anyone can buy these tools
02:47 and end up doing what he's able to do legally, illegally.
02:50 So let's get into this.
02:51 And we'll start with some basics.
02:54 You either have a proximity sensing key like this one,
02:56 or you have a traditional key that goes into your ignition
03:00 and you turn it to start the car
03:01 with a proximity sensing key.
03:03 You just push a button and then the car starts
03:04 and away you go.
03:05 Inside every single one of these proximity keys
03:08 is actually a physical key.
03:10 This is used if this battery ever dies
03:12 and you need to gain access to the car.
03:14 Most cars will have a keyhole on them somewhere
03:16 that allows you to put that in the keyhole,
03:18 turn it, open the door, and away you go.
03:20 You then tap that inside the car and it'll let you start.
03:22 Now this profile here, which I didn't know,
03:25 is actually common to a number of vehicles.
03:27 So when your car leaves the factory,
03:28 this exact same key profile is used
03:31 across a number of different vehicles around the world.
03:33 They generally try and limit it to regions,
03:35 so they won't typically have two BMWs, for example,
03:38 that have the same key code around Australia,
03:41 but there may be other BMWs around the world
03:43 that have the exact same key profile as yours.
03:46 That key profile is associated with a code.
03:49 That code allows someone like a locksmith
03:52 to type it into their key cutting machine,
03:53 and then the key cutting machine can make a replica
03:56 of your key without having the original key present.
03:59 How does all this relate
04:00 to being able to steal a car, though?
04:02 Well, by having a key like this,
04:03 it allows you to get access to the car
04:05 without breaking a window.
04:07 And there's a number of ways you can actually get
04:09 the key code to allow you to cut a key.
04:11 The first method is using what they call a turbo decoder.
04:14 Cool sounding name.
04:15 So it goes inside the keyhole,
04:16 you spin it around a few times,
04:18 and then it gives you the ridge profiles of the key
04:20 that a locksmith can then cut a new key for,
04:23 that then allows you to open the door.
04:25 In Hyundai's case, on the other hand,
04:26 and this is what genuinely blew us away,
04:29 TAPSI actually had a method of generating a key code
04:32 from a website using just the VIN for the vehicle.
04:36 This is where we joined Chimara to get into our i30.
04:39 I can't show you the website, but using this website,
04:42 all Chimara had to do was enter the VIN,
04:45 and then it spat out a key code,
04:46 and also get a pin code that allows you
04:49 to access the vehicle's OBD port.
04:51 And the OBD port is where we can communicate with the car
04:54 and change settings for the car
04:56 when you have one of these special devices.
04:58 Now getting a VIN is pretty straightforward.
05:00 In Queensland, at the least, where we did this,
05:03 all you need to do is type that registration into a website.
05:06 The website then spits out a VIN,
05:07 and you can see why this is a problem.
05:08 If you see a Hyundai parked on the side of a road,
05:11 all you need to do is go to this website
05:13 after you've seen the registration, use the VIN,
05:16 and then you're able to get a key code.
05:18 Once we have our key code,
05:19 all Chimara had to do was type it
05:21 into his locksmith machine,
05:23 and he was able to then get a key for the car.
05:26 Next up, we went out to the car
05:27 with a device that plugs into the OBD port.
05:30 Using the new key that he cut, he was able to open the door.
05:34 As soon as the door opened, yes, the alarm goes off,
05:36 but within a matter of about 10 seconds,
05:39 Chimara was able to plug in the device into the OBD port,
05:42 type in the pin code that we got from that website,
05:44 and then the alarm goes off.
05:46 Now, this device can be purchased by anyone off the internet
05:49 and it allows us to add or remove keys,
05:51 and it can program a huge list of car brands.
05:54 It's not just Hyundais through that OBD port.
05:56 When you think about this logically,
05:58 if you're sitting at home and you hear a car alarm go off
06:00 on the street or something like that,
06:02 you probably don't do anything
06:03 unless it's been going off for 30 seconds,
06:05 a minute, two minutes.
06:06 If you hear a car alarm going off for five or 10 seconds
06:09 and then it switches off,
06:10 you're probably just gonna ignore it
06:11 and get back to daily life.
06:13 You're not gonna think too much of it.
06:14 Less than 30 seconds later,
06:16 Chimara had a new key programmed for the Hyundai
06:20 and was able to start the car
06:22 and effectively drive off with it.
06:24 Now, this is a key that he cut himself
06:27 and a new key that he programmed from the car's OBD port
06:31 via a website that gave him a pin code.
06:34 It is absolutely alarming stuff.
06:37 So that shows you just how easy it is
06:38 to steal a vehicle like this with very simple tools
06:42 and tools that you can buy off the internet.
06:44 Now, what about our Toyota?
06:45 So this is a Toyota that we rented
06:48 and we wanted to make sure that this car
06:49 had nothing to do with us
06:51 so that we could actually test his skills
06:53 as a locksmith here to get into this vehicle
06:54 and show us what he can do.
06:56 Now, this particular car is a newer Toyota Kluger.
06:59 It's a 2022 model.
07:00 Toyota updated their security recently
07:02 and it became much harder to actually break into these cars
07:05 and steal them,
07:06 but within a matter of time after updating their security,
07:09 there were already tools on the market
07:11 to get into vehicles like the new Toyota Kluger.
07:13 So with the Toyota, we follow the same process here.
07:16 We're able to use a website to get a code for the key.
07:19 Shamara then cut a new key for the car
07:21 that simply was able to unlock the car.
07:24 So we went up to the car, he unlocked it,
07:25 the alarm went off again,
07:27 which is exactly what happened with the Hyundai.
07:29 The difference though with the Hyundai
07:30 is we had to plug into the OBD port
07:32 plus a secondary port within the vehicle.
07:35 This electronic device that Shamara had
07:37 had a special adapter that then plugs into
07:39 both the OBD port and another module on the vehicle.
07:42 Once that's plugged in within 20 seconds,
07:45 it's able to change the vehicle's firmware
07:47 and create a new key.
07:49 Now the Toyota used a proximity sensing key.
07:51 He was able to create a dummy proximity sensing key
07:54 that once authenticated with the car,
07:56 he was able to program a new blank Toyota key
07:59 that would then be used to start the car
08:01 and drive off with it.
08:02 So even though the process was slightly different
08:04 to the Hyundai, the end result was the same.
08:06 And instead of taking about 30 seconds to make it key,
08:08 it took around three minutes maximum to create a key
08:11 that allowed you to then drive off
08:13 with our Toyota Kluger rental car.
08:15 So I hope you enjoyed that.
08:17 I wanna reiterate here,
08:18 I don't want you to go out and start stealing cars now,
08:21 which is why we deliberately blanked out
08:23 some of the stuff in this video
08:24 so you can't just go buy the tools.
08:26 And I know that a lot of you aren't going to do that,
08:28 but I thought it was just interesting to explain
08:30 just how easy it is to break into a car today
08:33 and steal that car.
08:34 Thieves are no longer really having to break into your house
08:37 to steal your keys.
08:38 They can use things like relay devices to unlock the car.
08:40 They can then use some of these tools here
08:42 to then create new keys for the car
08:44 to just drive off in it.
08:45 You'll almost never know it was actually stolen
08:47 until you walk outside and the car's no longer there.
08:50 And think about this logically for a second.
08:52 Why is this so easy to happen?
08:54 Well, i30 came out in 2016,
08:56 probably two or three years before that,
08:58 they would have been doing engineering work on the car
09:00 and developing the security system for it.
09:02 That security system probably would have been
09:04 one or two years old by that point.
09:06 Fast forward to today, 2022,
09:08 you've got a car that has a security system
09:10 that is potentially 10 years old.
09:12 And it's not something that a brand like Hyundai
09:14 can update overnight,
09:15 because it is something that's encoded with the car
09:17 when it's first launched.
09:18 And typically they don't really change any of that stuff
09:21 until it comes to a new model.
09:23 Some of the newer cars on the market
09:24 with over the air updates can address security concerns
09:26 by uploading new firmware to your car.
09:29 But some of these older cars without over the air updates
09:31 are going to be compromised
09:32 when it comes to security systems.
09:34 So have you ever had your car stolen like this?
09:38 Obviously some people have their cars stolen
09:39 when they break into their homes and take their keys,
09:42 but have you ever had a car stolen where it just disappears?
09:45 A few years ago, I covered a story about a Mercedes-Benz
09:47 that was found in Dubai,
09:49 complete with its Victorian registration plates on it,
09:52 that was stolen from a home here in Melbourne,
09:54 taken over to Dubai and wasn't seen again
09:56 until someone randomly sent me a picture of it.
09:58 So this type of stuff is happening out there.
10:01 And what we've heard from police
10:02 is that it is becoming more and more common
10:04 as thieves get more sophisticated,
10:06 they wanna do less break and enters
10:08 with the ability to potentially hurt people,
10:10 they are using these tools to take your car.
10:13 I know what you're thinking,
10:13 how do I protect myself, Paul?
10:16 Unfortunately, there really isn't much you can do.
10:19 My first suggestion would be a Faraday bag for your key
10:22 so they can't use a relay attack
10:24 where they relay that position of your key
10:26 behind your door to the car.
10:27 So that's going to stop that from happening straight away.
10:30 Unfortunately, the only thing you really can do
10:32 is go old school and get something like a club lock
10:34 in your car or a mechanical device
10:36 that stops it from working
10:37 so the thief can't take your car.
10:39 So it is really, really bizarre stuff.
10:41 So let me know in the comments section below,
10:43 is there anything you wanna know?
10:44 We can ask Chamara, our locksmith expert about that stuff.
10:48 And I'll get back to you in the comments section.
10:49 If you did enjoy this video,
10:51 and if you did find it useful,
10:52 please like it and share it with your mates.
10:54 And if you haven't done so already,
10:55 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
10:58 But until next time, keep your cars safe.