SBD recently attended the International Vehicle Crime Conference organised by the UK chapter of the International Association of Auto Theft Investigators (IAATI). The event provides an opportunity for industry professionals; Police; Government agencies who are focused on tackling vehicle crime; and private companies who specialise in motor insurance or vehicle security; to share information on the latest theft techniques being used by thieves and to share experiences or recommendations for theft prevention.
The conference was well represented with both IAATI members and non-members attending from across Europe and North America, including Interpol, the Italian State Police, Larmtjanst AB of Sweden, and the IAATI International and European Presidents from the USA and Holland respectively. UK based attendees included the Director of the University of Central London’s Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science, high ranking officers from a number of regional police forces, as well as representatives from Nissan, Honda, and Bentley. SBD participated in this event and noted the following items of particular interest:
A proposal for a more secure method for vehicle manufacturers to share technical information with independent service and repair centres
Stuart James from the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) highlighted the key issues with the ways in which independent service and repair centres were able to access vehicle technical data from manufacturers. European legislation effected in March 2010 granted such independents access to vehicle technical information for Euro 5/6 vehicles. He explained that while access to this information has allowed independents to continue to function at full capacity without being part of a franchised dealership, many of the access routes lacked the necessary security to prevent unauthorised use of the information.
The RMI submitted a proposal to the European Commission in November 2010 to implement a more secure method of accessing vehicle technical data. The proposal would be administered by a new monitoring body named “RMI Standards and Certification” and would use more rigorous authentication procedures to prove the identity of the Proprietor, the Business, and the Employee using the service through a subscription based certification process. All transactions and changes will also be tracked through a central computer in order to identify any attempts to misuse the information.
A similar arrangement was introduced in the USA; known as the SDRM (Secure Data Release Model) administered by the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and the Associated Locksmiths of America (ALOA), so there is a precedent for such third party monitoring of a firewall between the independents and the security related manufacturer information.
Thieves going to great lengths to change vehicle ID
Niclas Antonsson from Larmtjanst AB explored the lengths that thieves would go to in order to successfully change the identity of a stolen vehicle. It was discovered that a stolen BMW had a VIN taken from a fire damaged vehicle in the USA, while replacements parts were taken from vehicles throughout Europe. The thieves were even willing to put the vehicle through a €5,000 conversion to change the steering system from RHD to LHD in order to make it more appealing to sell in another market. In a separate case, the whole suspension strut support of one vehicle was removed and fixed into a different stolen vehicle in order for the stolen vehicle to have an original VIN stamp (the main chassis VIN is stamped into the metal support structure on this model).
Document forgery a big problem in Italy
Raffaele Chianca of the Italian State Police described the scale of the problem of document forgery in Italy. He suggested that while the documents themselves, including vehicle registration certificates, are very secure and incredibly difficult to copy or manipulate, the officials who check these documents were unable to identify a legitimate document from a fake. Thieves are aware of this and produce documents that appear identical to the real thing using less expensive methods and materials, relying on the fact that most officials will not have the experience to effectively scrutinise the faked documents and spot the security measures that should be part of an original document. As a result, these security measures offer no real protection.
With SBD at the forefront of the latest developments in the automotive industry, you can be assured of receiving the most insightful and accurate research.SBD is proud to support the operations of IAATI, both from a UK and an international perspective and have been invited to present at the IAATI Asian Auto Theft Symposium to be held in Taiwan in October. We will also be publishing an event report on our blog later this year.
For more information on the latest trends in vehicle theft, or to discover how SBD can assist you with our reporting services from similar events, conferences and motor shows, please contact Kavitha Kuppuswamy at kkuppuswamy@sbd.co.uk