Authorities in France, Latvia and Spain have arrested 31 suspects who were involved in the manufacture and sale of car-hacking tools from two unnamed French manufacturers.
It is known that the criminals only targeted cars that were equipped with keyless entry and could start without a key, as the attackers could unlock the doors and start the engines without using key fobs. According to Europol, not only the hijackers were arrested, but also the developers of the software they used.Let me remind you that we also wrote that the Australian Police Arrested Author of the Imminent Monitor Spyware, and also that the Italian phischer was arrested for stealing manuscripts of unpublished books.
Law enforcers say that a hacker tool that was used to hack cars was advertised on the Internet as a product for car diagnostics, but is actually intended for criminals. This unnamed solution allowed the criminals to manipulate the software of targeted vehicles, bypass the keyless entry system, break into the passenger compartment and eventually commit thefts. It is known that the “hijacker’s kit” included a tablet, all the necessary connectors and the software itself.
Seized equipment
It is also reported that the cyber experts of the National Gendarmerie of France seized the domain through which the sale of equipment for car hacking was carried out. However, the Europol press release does not mention the URL of the site or the domain on which it was hosted. It is only known that France hosted the site, which was associated with several companies registered in the country.
Blocked site
In a statement, the gendarmerie says that the investigation revealed more than “53,000 links” with this sales site. Apparently, each of these cases may correspond to the theft of a car or an attempt to reprogram the keys.
This whole criminal scheme was supported by a network of a dozen resellers and more than 200 users throughout the country, including in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Lille, where raids also took place.
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