On June 11th, 2024, we discovered a set of vulnerabilities in Kia vehicles that allowed remote control over key functions using only a license plate. These attacks could be executed remotely on any hardware-equipped vehicle in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether it had an active Kia Connect subscription.
The Kia/Hyundai “challenge” where people were stealing their cars with a USB cord is because they opted not to include an immobilizer in US models for a decade. Every other car brand had them as standard. Kia even had them as standard in non US cars, but because the USA stupidly does not have a law about it, they opted to drastically reduce car security to save a few dollars per car.
This has made them prime targets, as people know they make bad security choices whenever they can save a buck.
I’m still amazed that immobilizers aren’t a legal requirement in the USA, and that Kia would remove them from US models just to save a small amount of money.
The Kia/Hyundai “challenge” where people were stealing their cars with a USB cord is because they opted not to include an immobilizer in US models for a decade. Every other car brand had them as standard. Kia even had them as standard in non US cars, but because the USA stupidly does not have a law about it, they opted to drastically reduce car security to save a few dollars per car.
This has made them prime targets, as people know they make bad security choices whenever they can save a buck.
So a bit of both, I expect.
I’m still amazed that immobilizers aren’t a legal requirement in the USA, and that Kia would remove them from US models just to save a small amount of money.