Relay attacks against modern keyless vehicles are not a future threat — they're the dominant theft methodology in the United States, used against Range Rover, BMW, Mercedes, Tesla, Audi, and Lexus every single night. The thieves don't need to be near the car or near the key. The four-step Faraday protocol HNW owners use to make their vehicle the wrong target.
A relay attack uses two cheap radio devices — one near the key fob (typically through your front wall while the fob sits in the entry-bowl), one near the car — to retransmit the fob's authentication signal across the gap. The car authenticates as if the key were standing right next to it. Total time: 30–60 seconds. The defense is breaking the radio path: Faraday-store every fob the household possesses. Done correctly, the attack physically cannot complete.
The same protocol used by professional executive-protection teams to harden principal-side vehicles is what works at home. No tracker. No alarm upgrade. No software patch. Pure passive shielding — and the thief's relay device cannot reach what isn't broadcasting.
The single highest-leverage step. Daily-carry fob lives in the wallet+keys Faraday chamber of your bag during the day, in an interior-cabinet Faraday pouch overnight. Spare fobs and valet fobs in interior storage. NEVER in the entry bowl, kitchen drawer near the front door, or any location within ~10 meters of an exterior wall.
BMW: hold lock button 5–10 seconds. Range Rover (post-2018): double-press lock. Audi (most models): hold lock. Disables broadcast until next button press. Defense in depth — Faraday-stored AND sleep-mode is the gold standard.
A locked garage is a meaningful physical barrier; it does not block radio. Relay attacks have been documented through garage walls when the fob was stored within a few meters of the wall. Faraday-store regardless of where the car is parked.
Steering wheel lock (yes, in 2026), motion-activated driveway lights, doorbell camera. These do not stop the relay attack, but they shift the operators to the next target. Most night-theft crews choose the lowest-friction vehicle on the block — make yours the highest.
REVIS-1 Executive Guard. Three independent Faraday-shielded chambers — laptop, tablet+phone, wallet+keys+RFID. Holds your daily-carry fob alongside contactless cards and RFID credentials. 76–85 dB across 30 MHz – 10 GHz, blocking the 315 / 433 MHz fob band with margin. The bag the principal already wishes they were carrying.
The bag the principal wishes they had on the night the relay devices come down the driveway. Hand-assembled in the United States. Reaches your door in 3–5 business days.
Acquire — $129General information about keyless-vehicle relay-attack defense as of May 2026. Vehicle security configurations vary by make, model, and software version.