Several years ago I gave a friend of mind, who is a single mother, a gift that she recently told me was one of the best gifts she has ever received. It is a simple device that you put under the door handle of your exterior door and then you rest the bottom on the floor and it makes it virtually impossible for someone to come through that door.

1. The Growing Danger Of High Tech Car Thieves

2. Several years ago I gave a friend of mind, who is a single
mother, a gift that she recently told me was one of the best
gifts she has ever received.

3. It is a simple device that you put under the door handle of
your exterior door and then you rest the bottom on the
floor and it makes it virtually impossible for someone to
come through that door.

4. How To Stop High Tech Car Thieves

5. With all the high tech systems that are now installed on
today's vehicles, it may be the simplest of devices that will
be able to stop car thieves.

6. Install a mechanical steering wheel lock.

7. But why go old school?

8. Technology is always a double edged sword.

9. Take the new version of the old car key, the fob.

10. You know, the device that can start your car without you
even having to be inside it.

11. This technology can be really handy for vehicle owners, but
it opens the door for savvy high tech car thieves as well.

12. For less than $40 would be car thieves can buy a device that
allows them to program a blank fob so that it will work with
your car.

13. I know, you were told at the dealership that your car won't
start unless the car's computer receives a unique signal
from your fob.

14. Did they also tell you at the dealership that it is easy, by
using readily available key-programming equipment, to
create copies of your fob with that exact same signal?

15. It is estimated that by 2020, 90% of all vehicles on the road
will have the technology installed that allows them to
connect to the Internet.

16. With this connection comes a myriad of potential
vulnerabilities that car owners will have to face.

17. Recently, researchers showed just how easy it can be to
take control of a car's steering and brakes while the vehicle
is actually on the road, perhaps going down the freeway at
70 MPH.

18. The fact is that the more the Internet connection interacts
with different functions of the vehicle, the more susceptible
that the vehicle is too high tech thieves and hackers.

19. High Tech Car Thieves Thrive On New Technology

20. For their part, car
manufacturers are
working as quickly as
possible to address the
danger of high tech
thieves and hackers.

21. The problem is that they are actually working against
themselves.

22. Every time they introduce some new technological
advancement in one of their vehicles, they are
simultaneously opening the door for high tech car thieves
and hackers to walk right through, meaning they are always
playing catch up with themselves.