All you need is a Nokia 3310, see how they do it

An alert went out in the US several weeks ago regarding Toyota vehicles that had ended up in the sight of hackers.

If you plan to buy a new one car, the search for the most popular models begins on social networks or in any case on the web, perhaps by looking at reviews that report the strengths and weaknesses of the cars. However, there are those who are also trying to look at other details. actually There are some models, more than others, that thieves are always targeting. That’s why it’s best to know ahead of time, so you might think twice before giving the nod to the purchase.

Stealing techniques have been improved over the decades Often, a simple distraction is enough to allow the thief to carry out the robbery in a completely unsound manner. Unless we are dealing with first-class cars or SUVs, which end up being resold and re-registered in some countries (especially in Eastern Europe), car thefts have the main objective of selling spare parts on the black market.

Only in these weeks in United States of America For example, an inconvenient fact regarding Toyota, with the increase in theft and violations affecting its vehicles. In practice, it has been found that the hand-made devices are able to start the engine of a car from the Japanese company, which is part of a rather significant galaxy of several brands, in a few seconds. Even worse, many of these devices end up on the web, where anyone can buy them at affordable prices.

Toyota, so hackers can run it

Cyber ​​security experts Ken Tindle And Ian Tabor They discovered and informed Toyota that it was possible to enter cars using some primitive devices just by placing them on the headlights of the different models. In practice, due to a technical problem, a hacker can send an ignition message to the car’s control unit even though they don’t have the keys.

for some reason, Some Toyota models, including the popular RAV4, accept messages from other ECUs These systems exploit this to undermine the vehicle’s defenses and entry. Security experts managed to create a device dedicated to exploiting the vulnerability using $10 components built into a JBL Bluetooth speaker. But this technology has evolved so much that even today older generation mobile phones are used, such as Nokia 3310.

Practically speaking, the attacker only needs to connect the smartphone to the vehicle using a standard cable, then in a few clicks the Toyota lock can be unlocked and turned on. It turns out that in this way it is possible to open not only cars of this brand, but also Lexus and vehicles Maserati. Devices begin to exploit the vulnerability when 2500 euros And they go up to 18,000 euros. In some cases, they can be found online as tools to unlock a vehicle or jump start a stationary vehicle.

Toyota initially ignored these warnings but appears to be already working in the shadows to find a solution. And also because the risk of “tricks” getting to Europe is high.