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RFID-enabled Vehicles: Pinch My Ride
Billosaur writes "Wired has an excellent article on the problems with the theft of
RFID-enabled vehicles and how insurance companies are so over-confident in the technology, they are denying claims when such vehicles are stolen. Example: "Emad Wassef walked out of a Target store in Orange County, California, to find a big space where his 2003 Lincoln Navigator had been. The 38-year-old truck driver and former reserve Los Angeles police officer did what anyone would do: He reported the theft to the cops and called his insurance company. Two weeks later, the black SUV turned up near the Mexico border, minus its stereo, airbags, DVD player, and door panels. Wassef assumed he had a straightforward claim for around $25,000. His insurer, Chicago-based Unitrin Direct, disagreed." Their forensic examiner concluded that since all the keys were accounted for, there was no way the engine could have been started, despite the evidence that the ignition lock had been forced and the steering wheel locking lug had been damaged."
A local man who was the victim of a Home Invasion was shocked to learn that his insurance claim was denied because "As all of his home keys were still in his property, no one could have entered the house". Shard of broken glass, the robber's blood, his conviction in court and a lucky passerby's videotapes were also dismissed as "clever fakes". InsuranceCo stock jumped another 3 points today...
I never spellcheck and I freely admit it. Save your karma for more worthwhile "lol erorrs" replies
The man in the headline should clearly be bending his insurer over a barrel and giving them a good legal fucking...
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
...to deny claims. That's what they do. Insurance companies aren't in business to pay for people's losses, they're in business not to pay for people's losses, because the less they pay out, the greater profit they make. The portrayal in The Incredibles was just about dead-on. So getting them to fork over is often like trying to squeeze blood from a stone even at the best of times.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
You don't think the issue here is RFID spoofing, perhaps?
Argh.
If the car can't (according to the insurance company) be stolen, then by accepting premiums for insurance which covers loss due to theft (without any intention of ever paying said claims), they are comitting fraud. Sounds like some insurance company executives need to go to jail.
...which is what I really think is going on here, it's at least partly a classic case of turning off reasoning and common sense wherever technology is involved. The same amazingly intelligent people who can't operate the clock on the VCR are running the world and denying your claims.
You're guilty of having sex with her around the time she was raped, yes. Is that enough to convict you of her rape? Not by a long shot.
Why is it that most people automatically assume technological solutions to problems are infallible, and don't create any further problems? This certainly isn't limited to insurance adjusters and stolen cars, just another convenient reminder that when faced with something they don't understand, the average person seems to just shut down their brain and move on.
you neglect to account for the possible neccesity of such a vehicle, perhaps this many has a large family and a boat which he frequently tows?
Large families and boats are both lifestyle choices as well. Choices which it's perfectly valid to criticize.
Their forensic examiner concluded that since all the keys were accounted for, there was no way the engine could have been started,
And if not all the keys had been accounted for, the insurance company would have refused to pay because the guy was careless with his keys.
I hope the victim will be able to recover both his loss and penalties from the insurance company.
US carmakers and auto-mobile insurers are unshakably certain that vehicles protected by "transponder immobil-izers" can't be driven without the proper keys - or, at least, that circumventing those transponder systems takes more sweat and money than most auto thieves are willing to expend.
I think these companies are seriously fooling themselves. It's not like every crook has to go through the trouble of cracing the system - only one does - they can then sell their crack to everyone else.
Who wants to bet that right now, as we speak, car thieves know more about these systems than the insurance company forensic investigators do?
I don't even know anything about them and I know how this could be done. These systems work like any other public key encryption, they rely on the fact that there is a **private key** in the car that no one knows about. One leak in the system, either in the plant, or in the chip in the car, or in a disgruntled employee at a dealership, and the system falls apart. Boom, it is now trivial to make fake RFID "keys" that respond with the right handshake to private keys sent from the car.
Uh, if the sex was consensual I doubt you'd even be in court in the first place. All she would have to do is say...
That also assumes she's still alive.
When I was in college, there were groups going around telling women that "you may just not know you were raped." They had a clear goal of blurring the line between the words "rape" and "regret". It is nieve to believe that EVERY woman who claims rape really was raped. If it wasn't, we wouldn't need courts. Just a woman pointing a finger, and the man could be hauled off to jail.
The RFID key doesn't matter. Any car, suv, truck, minivan, or box with wheels can be stolen with a tow truck. End of story it can be stolen just pay the man.
And that she doesn't have overbearing overzealous parents who will never believe that Daddy's Little Girl (tm) could ever have premarital sex so it must have been rape.
Or a swapped out ECU. Don't for a moment think that the crooks stealing the expensive
vehciles don't have access to resources to glom onto a hacked or tuner's ECU somewhere
that doesn't DO the RFID check. If it doesn't have an alarm system, it's very believeable
that someone could have busted into the vehicle, swapped out ECUs, busted the column
lock and cover and drove off in about 10 minutes or so- less if they've got more than
one thief working in parallel.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
I thought it was accepted practice to stall, misrepresent, impose legal costs, hide behind obscure terminology in a contract, and employ countless other ways to avoid rendering its primary service.
How was this modded 4/informative? Ever heard of a @#$%@#$% tow truck? 'never pass up a chance to suck up to a multi-billion dollar industry' :P