Chicago drivers are on alert as law enforcement flags a spike in car thefts that rely on small electronic gadgets to clone key fobs and spit out fresh, working keys in a matter of minutes. Investigators say the scheme is no longer limited to luxury rides and is increasingly being used on mid-range and everyday vehicles parked on city streets and in neighborhood lots.
Lt. Adam Broshous of the Illinois Secretary of State Police said the Chicago area has seen key fob cloning for roughly a decade, but the tactic has become far more common in the last few years. Once thieves get inside a vehicle, he said, they can program a new key fob in about one to two minutes. Broshous also told reporters that offenders are testing devices that capture the radio signal from a legitimate fob and reuse it to unlock and start cars. According to FOX 32 Chicago, investigators have been seizing key programmers and tracking stolen vehicles by pulling data off those devices.
How Thieves Do It: Two Quick Ways They Get In
Investigators describe two main tactics. In one, a thief breaks a window, reaches the on-board diagnostic (OBD) port, and plugs in a key programmer that writes a brand new fob. In the other, criminals pull off a relay or signal capture attack that convinces the vehicle a legitimate key fob is nearby, even when it is sitting safely inside a house or purse.
Local demonstrations have shown key programmers can spit out a working key in under a minute, and industry researchers note that online tutorials and cheap aftermarket gadgets have helped spread the method. Reporting from Milwaukee has detailed how both OBD programming and signal capture attacks have taken off on the internet; see WISN 12 News for specific case examples. A recent industry analysis from Upstream Security maps the same trend across global car theft data.
What Police Are Telling Drivers
Police are sticking with some old-school advice for a very high-tech problem. They recommend parking in a garage when possible or at least in well-lit spots, keeping key fobs away from doors and windows at home, and using signal blocking pouches, often called Faraday bags, to make it harder for thieves to capture a fob’s signal…