Canada to ban the Flipper Zero to stop surge in car thefts

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 375 points –
bleepingcomputer.com

Canada to ban the Flipper Zero to stop surge in car thefts::The Canadian government plans to ban the Flipper Zero and similar devices after tagging them as tools thieves can use to steal cars.

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How hard would it be to make a similar device?

A single-board computer, radio modules, and the appropriate software. Trivial for someone with the technical knowledge. The only thing that made the flipper unique is that it comes pre-packaged.

The uniformity is also nice. Lots of tutorials targetting it

Any determined thief will just build their own, or one guy will do it and sell to all the thieves, this is the wrong solution.

Politicians being stupid and thick, as usual.

This can be replicated with off-the-shelf components and readily available software. The real issue is the low security of cars.

Also, a similar device with better capabilities is about to hit the market.

How specific is the law? I can imagine these idiots either...

  • Very specifically banning flipper so now people make a functionally identical device called the reppilf that is totally legal
  • Banning any computing device capable of transmitting radio, thus outlawing all cellphones, laptops, desktops, iot, etc.

PS: as others said, wouldn't be super hard to pull off, just a matter of assembling parts. This is why banning tools is almost always fucking stupid and only penalizes those who follow the law.

This is how every licensed gun owner in Canada has felt for years. You can go read how they word those laws to get a good idea of how they would go about wording this one. It's not great.