The Canadian government plans to ban the sale of the Flipper Zero and similar devices, believing that they can be used to steal cars.
“Criminals use sophisticated tools to steal cars. And Canadians are rightly concerned – writes to X Canadian Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. “Today I am officially announcing that we are banning the import, sale and use of consumer hacking devices, such as the Flipper, that are used to commit these types of crimes.”
The announcement comes on the heels of a national anti-auto theft summit hosted by the Canadian government in Ottawa last week.
Advertisement
Yes, according to data According to Canadian authorities, about 90,000 cars are stolen in Canada every year (that is, one car every six minutes), and losses from automobile thefts amount to $1 billion per year, including insurance costs for repairs and replacement of stolen cars. In addition, according to Canadian police, auto thefts had a significant impact on the growth of the national Crime Severity Index in 2022.
Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED Canada) statedwhich will “use every opportunity to prohibit devices such as the Flipper Zero, which are used to steal vehicles by copying wireless remote keyless entry signals, thereby removing these devices from the Canadian market in cooperation with law enforcement.”
Although Canadian authorities insist that the Flipper Zero is part of the reason for the surge in auto thefts in the country, the company that makes the device, Flipper Devices, said the device cannot be used to steal cars built in the last 24 years.
“Flipper Zero cannot be used to steal any vehicles, especially those made after the 1990s, as their security systems use sliding codes,” he told the publication. Bleeping Computer Flipper Devices Chief Operating Officer Alex Kulagin. “In addition, in order to intercept the original signal, it is necessary to actively block the owner’s signal, which the Flipper Zero hardware is not capable of. Flipper Zero is intended for testing and development of security systems, and we have taken the necessary precautions to ensure that the device cannot be used for criminal purposes.”
Let us remind you that this is not the first time that Flipper Zero has had similar problems. So, last year, Amazon banned the sale of Flipper Zero, calling it a “card skimming device,” and Brazilian authorities even confiscated packages with “hacker Tamagotchis,” fearing that the gadgets could be used by criminals.
Advertisement