How to protect your new pick-up truck from being stolen

 

There has been a spate of car thefts, especially involving the popular new pick-up trucks which feature keyless entry and push-start ignition.

These convenient features employ electronics and radio frequency transmitters which, ironically, are frighteningly vulnerable to frequency scanners available online for as little as RM500. This method to steal vehicles is called a relay attack.

Intriguingly, one of the cases that was reported involved a pick-up truck produced by the world’s top-selling brand.

The owner had fitted a top-of-the-line car theft protection system in addition to the factory installed security and GPS system. But his truck still got stolen because both the anti-theft systems were GSM-GPS based equipment vulnerable to radio-frequency jamming tools.

The factory-fitted system was physically ripped out by the thief while the second system was blocked by the jammer.

The car owner had been intermittently receiving notices on his phone about suspicious activity but his desperate calls to immobilise the car were blocked by the thief’s jammer.

It was only when the thief deactivated the jammer – perhaps he got lost and wanted to use Waze on his phone – that the owner managed to get his car back.

As soon as the jammer was turned off, the owner seized the chance to remotely immobilise his car. By the time the owner and the police reached the disabled car, the thief had fled.

Fit your own system

The point is that both systems were based on GSM-telephony and could be disabled by a GSM frequency jammer. The owner was just lucky that the culprit was not too bright.

A more comprehensive way to protect a pick-up truck is with a privately installed system as factory-installed systems often lack armoured anti-theft hardware and have standardised locations that are easily known.

Also, it means that a manual immobiliser system is still a good anti-theft system if it’s armoured with anonymous wiring in an unknown location.

In the UK, the rate of car thefts has dramatically fallen thanks to an additional measure through number plate licensing.

The UK Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency authorises and registers number plate suppliers according to legal requirements. These suppliers must be provided with evidence of the customer’s entitlement to the registration number before manufacturing a number plate.

Therefore, car owners should consider these additional measures and best practices:

1. Keep your keyless-go keys in Faraday pouches.
2. Use traditional physical security measures such as steering wheel locks and gear locks, which are strong deterrents.
3. Inscribe the vehicle registration number on the front and rear windscreens and four windows.

New number plate system

The good news is that officials of the standards department had a meeting last week to discuss changes to bring car anti-theft systems up to date and to tackle the relay attack method widely used by thieves.

For the transport ministry, the road transport department (JPJ) plans to modernise the licence plate system to align it with the age of electric vehicles, with modern security and safety standards.

The safety aspect lies in its request for number plates with reflective alphanumerics on a black background.

Meanwhile, the security aspect is driven by its requirement that the number plates are embossed only by authorised manufacturers and only sold by those authorised by JPJ.

JPJ has also requested bidders to propose an optional embedded passive RFID chip to ease congestion at toll plazas via a multi-lane free flow system.

This proposed modern number plate system is a secure system that will deter number plate switching by car thieves.

Finally, an owner may consider purchasing a premium insurance product that covers car theft and personal accident, to indemnify the loss of use of a car for six months or so while the cops probe whether it’s a genuine theft or an insurance fraud.

Talk with your insurance agents as I doubt online insurance brokers will have this combination of motor and personal accident coverage. - FMT

Yamin Vong can be reached at his Facebook page, yamin.com.my

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.