Europol, in cooperation with the police authorities of three European countries, carried out arrests of 31 people who, using smart software, opened cars.
The arrest was carried out by the police authorities of France, Latvia and Spain in cooperation with Europol and the EU for Cooperation in Criminal Justice, Eurojust. A coordinated arrest operation was carried out on 10 October in the three aforementioned countries, with police raiding 22 locations and confiscating €1,098,500 in proceeds from illegal activities.
Europol says the alleged perpetrators targeted car models of two specific French companies (name not reported) who had keyless start system. Car thefts were carried out using software that bypassed the car’s safety valves and allowed attackers to easily open the doors and then start the engine.
As car manufacturers developed more and more new protective measures (complicated signaling), the criminal organization “kept up” and updated your software as stated by Eurojust.
Although no further information has been provided on the exact modus operandi of the criminal group, it appears that they used a “relay theft” method, that is, they used “signal interceptors” (which read the signal from the car owners’ key). This is a method of action that has experienced a particularly large boom in recent years, because, in addition to being particularly effective, signal repeaters (intercepting and recording the “electronic key”) cost only a few euros.
The investigation began in September 2022 by the Cybercrime Department of the French Gendarmerie (C3N), and since March 2022 Europol has made a decisive contribution by conducting extensive data analysis and disseminating emergency information messages to all countries affected by the activities of the criminal group.
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