The Security team are urging all employees with keyless entry cars to be vigilant to the risks of theft using hacking software.There have recently been several incidents where criminals have been able to hack the keyless entry system for a car and use this to steal valuables left in the vehicle.

Firstly, please ensure valuables are not left in the car overnight. Secondly, keys should be kept in a secure container that will block the signal used to unlock the car. Faraday pouches are ideal, or alternatively a biscuit tin will also work! (a good excuse to eat the biscuits first….)

You can find out more about this type of crime by watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARrlhlQiFzM

Adam Bradbury, Quarry Manager at Bramshill Quarry, had his car broken into through hacking. He said:

“I didn’t actually realise I had been targeted until the Monday morning when I noticed some valuables had gone and I went to get some fuel and discovered that my wallet was empty of cash.

I checked my doorbell camera’s footage and looked at the play back.  At 3.30am Saturday morning a hooded man walks past the camera and up to all the newer vehicles on my road with a little box in his hand. He stands next to them for around 10 seconds, tries to open the door and when he can’t, walks on to the next car. I heard on the news that people can buy a cheap piece of equipment that scans for the keys signal, if the key is within range (around 5 metres) they can read the signal and open the doors,  they are also able to read the code and start the engine in under a minute should they have the right coding and box.

The reason I didn’t realise until Monday was my car had been relocked after the stuff was stolen, and on my Jaguar Car App I could see the alarm hadn’t sounded and that the vehicle was locked up when I got home on Friday night. I had no warnings on my alarm system for the car’s app and it was locked on Sunday when my wife took it to the shop.

After doing some research and speaking with CEMEX security it’s scary how easy it is to use scanning boxes.  On our local Facebook groups since my incident there has been a lot more of the same in the local area all using the same methods. All the cars approached and entered are all modern (less than four years old) of a higher end manufacture e.g. Jaguar, Mercedes, Range Rover etc.

Since then, all of my spare keys have been put in faraday pouches and my valuables locked safely in my house, our normal use keys are kept as far away from the location of the vehicle as practicable with another Faraday pouch protecting them.”

To support employees, the Security team has secured CEMEX endorsed Faraday pouches for all those with company cars. These will be distributed shortly.

CEMEX UK Security Manager, Colin Jones, commented: “Car crime remains a regular occurrence and can be expected to spike around Christmas. Whilst the ‘hacking’ method used in Adam’s case is relatively unknown, it is in fact fairly common in the case of keyless entry cars. The best way to protect ourselves from becoming a victim is to ensure all valuables are removed from vehicles and the keys stored in a Faraday pouch which restricts the emitted signal. I would encourage all employees to utilise the pouch as a matter of course and hope to get them distributed for use very soon.”

If you have any questions, please contact Colin Jones or John Sweeting.