The Canadian government plans to ban the Flipper Zero and similar devices after tagging them as tools thieves can use to steal cars.
The Flipper Zero is a portable and programmable pen-testing tool that helps experiment with and debug various hardware and digital devices over multiple protocols, including RFID, radio, NFC, infrared, and Bluetooth.
Users have been demonstrating Flipper Zero's features in videos shared online since its release, showcasing its capacity to conduct replay attacks to unlock cars, open garage doors, activate doorbells, and clone various digital keys.
Champagne's announcement comes after a national summit on combatting auto theft hosted this week by the Government of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario.
According to the Canadian government, around 90,000 vehicles are reported stolen every year, with car theft resulting in $1 billion in annual losses, including insurance costs for fixing and replacing stolen cars.
The figures shared by the Canadian government when describing the car theft surge currently impacting Canada align with the most recent data shared by the Statistics Canada government agency, which shows an increasing number of car theft reports since 2021.
Canadian police also reported that motor vehicle theft had the most significant impact on an increase in the national Crime Severity Index in 2022.
While the Canadian government insists that the Flipper Zero is one of the reasons behind the current surge of car thefts in the country, Flipper Devices, the company behind the devices, says the gadget can't be used to steal vehicles built within the last 24 years.
Amazon has also banned the sale of the Flipper Zero since April 2023 for being a card skimming device after the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency began seizing incoming Flipper Zero purchases in March 2023 due to its alleged use by criminals.
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This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:20:05 +0000