According to the Wall Street Journal, a pair of car thieves was caught on CCTV while they used a laptop to steal a 2010 Jeep Wrangler out of the owners driveway.

Senior Officer James Woods, who’s logged 23 years in the Houston Police Department’s auto antitheft unit, had this to say:

"We don’t know what he is exactly doing with the laptop, but my guess is he is tapping into the car’s computer and marrying it with a key he may already have with him so he can start the car."

Titus Melnyk, Fiat Chrysler’s senior manager of security architecture for North America, seconded the observation: car thieves “are using dealer tools to marry another key fob to the car.”

Technological advances in car systems have far outstripped the industry’s speed in finding and securing the security holes they usher in.
This is supposed to be the year that we see the auto industry address cybersecurity in the auto industry.


Source: Sophos