security issues?

6964 Views 11 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Philamg, Mar 12, 2018

LONS

Discussion Starter · Mar 9, 2018

We've had several keyless entry cars over the last few years which includes my wifes' current Mini and whilst I've read about possible security issues it's never really bothered me however today I met up with a mate who hadn't seen my GLC and his comment was " what the **** did you buy that for".

Normally I would have laughed and said he was just jealous, even when he said there is a known security hacking issue but this guy is a serving copper in the Tees force and he says they've had 3 brand new cars stolen from tees port recently where they are convinced that the system has been overridden. They recovered one car from a dodgy estate where the woman was paid £150 to keep the car in her garage.

It wasn't much comfort to be told that other makes are also not safe with a particular Ford Fiesta model being the worst.

Anyone come across this?

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Teckno

· #2 · Mar 10, 2018

No hard evidence.
If concerned keep keys at home in a “faraday” pouch. It stops someone finding the signal to activate the car.
Never keep keyless fob in car, especially when parked within property or locked garage.
Bit like keeping credit cards in an RFI blocking wallet or travel bag.

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Philamg

· #3 · Mar 10, 2018

You don't need a faraday pouch with the keyless GLC, after locking press the close button quickly twice and you will see the red light illuminate for longer than normal. This disables the signal from the key so it can't be read, don't forget to do the spare key as well, great feature. When you want to open the car press any button once and the keyless entry is enabled.

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LONS

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 10, 2018

Hi Teckno

I'm not really too concerned tbh as it's unlikely to be a problem where I live though of course when leaving in car parks in the cities is a different matter. As it happens, my son had his car opened ( Vauxhall Insignia) a couple of years ago in a Manchester city centre car park and the police told him that CCTV footage showed that the thieves had apparently hacked his key to gain entry. Didn't take the car but stole £3000 worth of camera equipment. He'd only left the car for 20 minutes while he booked into a hotel.
I don't know if the car theft problem in Oz is as bad as the UK where many of the stolen vehicles are shipped to Ireland and Europe, often broken down into parts.

Teesport is a major import route for cars coming to the UK and these can be anything from a lowly Ford Fiesta to expensive Mercs, BMWs and exotic Ferraris so clearly where cars can be targetted.
Actually when thinking about it I remember parts of Australia where I drove for hours and only saw a handful of other vehicles. :wink2:

The interesting thing to me was that my mate said the GLC and C class were a popular target, more so than BMs and Audis although nowhere near the number of Fiesta ST models stolen. OK just a local example but my mate wasn't joking and and is part of the investigating team in the area.

As I said though I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

cheers
Bob

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LONS

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 10, 2018

Philamg said:
You don't need a faraday pouch with the keyless GLC, after locking press the close button quickly twice and you will see the red light illuminate for longer than normal. This disables the signal from the key so it can't be read, don't forget to do the spare key as well, great feature. When you want to open the car press any button once and the keyless entry is enabled.

I missed that when reading the manual ( otherwise known as "war and peace" ).

Thanks for that Phil, much appreciated.

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Philamg

· #6 · Mar 10, 2018

Hi Lons

I believe they put the facility in the key fob to save the battery but adds the facility of not being able to be cloned, yes the handbook is hard work but I was bored one "month".

Try it, you can't open the car when disabled.

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gb93616

· #7 · Mar 10, 2018

The problem I find with double pressing the key is that the next morning I wake up, half asleep, put my key in my pocket, put my hand in the door handle to open it, and it doesn't. Then I have to take the key out of my pocket and press the button to unlock!?

No point in having keyless entry. I like keyless entry and some little scallywag isn't going to stop me using it. So, I use a Faraday pouch and place my key in there as soon as I get home.

I don't imagine more C & GLC's get stolen than any other car - the insurance on the GLC, for me, was the cheapest car I've ever insured and it's a 3.0litre. I guess more people have rear end shunts that cars get stolen?

GB

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Philamg

· #8 · Mar 10, 2018

A couple of people commented the same on the discovery sport forum - their cars were stolen.

I have got used to pressing the button before I put the key in my pocket, would have thought it was easier than putting into and taking out of a pouch!.

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gb93616

· #9 · Mar 11, 2018

Philamg said:
A couple of people commented the same on the discovery sport forum - their cars were stolen.

I have got used to pressing the button before I put the key in my pocket, would have thought it was easier than putting into and taking out of a pouch!.

That's true, but you don't have keyless entry :frown2:

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Philamg

· #10 · Mar 11, 2018

gb93616 said:
That's true, but you don't have keyless entry :frown2:

?, not sure what you mean.

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Gibbo37

· #11 · Mar 12, 2018

Philamg said:
?, not sure what you mean.

I think he means that if you deactivate the key you can't then use the keyless entry without pressing the button beforehand

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Philamg

· #12 · Mar 12, 2018

Thanks Gibbo, my post said I pressed the button before putting key in my pocket. Keyless entry on GLC is brilliant, on land rover it is like the krypton factor to get the gesture tailgate to work.

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