News: $30 device allows thieves to steal your car

As cars have become more sophisticated, largely becoming rolling computers that are increasingly able to take over many of the tasks of the daily commute, so too have the thieves who steal them. In the old days, car thieves relied on mechanical tools like slim jims, screwdrivers, and pliers or sometimes just brute strength to break into and hot wire a car to steal it, but nowadays, with most cars using push button starting or some form of rolling code immobilizer, some much more sophisticated equipment is required, or so we thought.

Clever hacker Sammy Kamkar has created a device, costing about $30, that is not only capable of allowing someone to steal your car, but also allows them to open your garage door so that they can get at your car in the first place. Known as RollJam, the device jams and intercepts radio signals to allow an unscrupulous car thief the ability to acquire a valid code from your vehicle or garage door remote. The way it works is actually quite clever.

Editorial: Is the Basic Car Alarm Still Effective?

Image courtesy of memecrunch.com

Not too long ago, I was awoken in the middle of the night by a car alarm that suddenly started blaring at a nearby apartment complex. Knowing the alarm sounded nothing like my own car or my fiancee's car, I attempted to go back to sleep. For the next five minutes, the alarm kept going off until it either disarmed itself, or the owner finally woke up and disarmed it. I started to think back to the night when my fiancee and I had first moved into our current place. Right around 11pm, a fifth generation Honda Accord with an aftermarket alarm system started going off. After about two to three minutes of continuous blaring, it stopped, only to start again 30 seconds later. This kept happening up until about 8am the following morning when we called the police since we were sick of hearing it. I later overheard the officer questioning the owner of the car, who was completely oblivious to his car alarm. All of this got me wondering: just how effective are car alarms these days?

Innovation: BikeSpike

Image courtesy of BikeSpike on Kickstarter

For those of us who rely on two-wheeled forms of transportation, security is always a concern. Not having solid sheet metal and glass to prevent access and entry to our bicycles and motorcycles, riders of all kinds continue to look for innovative ways to protect our investments. That is why the BikeSpike caught my attention when I saw it. This small device, which was originally developed for bicycles, that can be attached to any two-wheeled vehicle, offers a way to GPS track the location of your bike or motorcycle from your smart phone. While the idea has been around, it has only been available for motorcycles as a part of expensive alarm systems and never as a low-cost standalone option.

The BikeSpike allows total control from its smart phone app and allows a user to enter the details of their ride into the app to keep track of the vehicle's information and make it available to law enforcement at the touch of a finger in the event that the vehicle is stolen. The app also allows you to set a geo-fence around the vehicle, triggering a warning if the vehicle is moved out of the designated area. In many ways, this is exactly the kind of thing motorcyclists and bicyclists are looking and for once, it is not so cost prohibitive that only those with money to spare can afford it.

Read more about the BikeSpike at the link after the jump.