Law enforcement agencies recently arrested a car theft organisation composed of keyless car hackers from Spain, Latvia, and France. Based on reports, 31 arrested suspects are members of a car theft ring that targeted automobiles from a couple of France-based car manufacturers.
The criminals only targeted cards with keyless entry and push-start systems. They hack the feature, allowing them to unlock the doors and start the car without using the key to the targeted automobile.
A fraudulent tool endorsed on the internet by other threat actors was used as an automotive diagnostic solution that acts as a substitute for the stolen car’s software. This tool enabled the threat actors to bypass the vehicle’s keyless function to enter the system and carnap them.
The French National Gendarmerie confiscated the domain, providing the keyless car hackers tool.
France’s cyberspace command has seized the domain which contained the fraudulent software used by the keyless car hackers for their attacks. However, the press release did not mention the link to the website or the domain where its authors kept it.
The domain’s seizure also resulted in the coordinated action operated earlier this month by several authorities in the three countries mentioned earlier. The operation arrested 31 suspects, including 22 searched places and over a million euros in criminal assets.
Among the 31 suspects are car thieves, resellers, and software developers who used the tools to steal multiple vehicles.
Unfortunately, Europol did not give any information on how the car-stealing incident managed to compromise the keyless vehicles. Some experts believe that remote keyless entry systems are prone to these exploits.
Today, an investigation was started by the French Gendarmerie’s Cybercrime Centre, with the French authorities also starting a case at Eurojust last month. The cooperation of France, Latvia, and Spain nation authorities in the joint apprehension was facilitated by the European Union.
Europol backed the investigation of the incident earlier this year by giving analysis and intelligence support to the countries targeted by this criminal organisation.
