In a matter of seconds, thieves intercept the vehicle’s key signal, obtain the opening code, start it, and drive away. Digital Car hacking has gained strength in Jalisco in recent years.
“Regarding the hacking of cars, it is a phenomenon that we began to see particularly in some states, although I remember it began very strongly in the State of Jalisco,” said Norma Alicia Rosas, general director of the Mexican Agency of Insurance Institutions.
Car hacking is a form of robbery without violence, of which the Secretary of Security had warned for a year. It consists of criminals cloning digital vehicle keys with electronic devices. Police officers consulted on the subject estimated that since the beginning of 2021 there has been an increase in these cases.
The numbers of complaints for stolen vehicles mark a downward trend in robberies with violence, but robberies without violence have not subsided, but have increased.
During 2020, 9,956 vehicles were stolen in Jalisco, 53% of them without violence. For 2021, of the 10,148 vehicles stolen, 59.6% of them without violence. And in the first nine months of 2022, there were 6,928 reported thefts, 62.9% of them without the use of force.
“There is still no way to prevent it,” Rosas acknowledged.
Cybersecurity specialist Ramón Becerra Reynoso commented that to stop this type of vehicle theft in Jalisco, a law is required that specifically sanctions car hacking.
He said, “Robbery with violence is not receiving as much rapid follow-up as is required, let alone robbery without violence.
“I think that (the authorities) need technology, and the cyber police need to act whenever the Public Ministry asks them to. Now the question is, will the ministry have the capacity to understand how this type of robbery is being carried out?”