Heard a piece on R4 last week, about a "new" threat to car security, whereby thieves buy some sort of kit off t'internet, and then plug it into a cars onboard computer, which enables them to program a blank key, which they can use to start the car and drive it away. BMWs were mentioned, amongst others.
This lead to a rather suspicious debate about "why don't they check people buying this kit", which leaned towards another reason to crack down on the internet.
Now, is it just me, or is it not possible to have the on board computer require some sort of PIN before it dishes out any programming codes ? Especially if the PIN isn't supplied by default, and the owner has to request it from the manufacturer.
Or (as I suspect) is the whole "story" a masterpiece of sloppy journalism, and things are much more complex.
One woman they interviewed, who had a £50,000 BMW stolen said that as soon as they realised it was stolen (next morning, off the drive) they alerted the tracker company, who could find no trace of it - suggesting it had been exported immediately. Not a very good advert for trackers.