Of all the mods/hacks I’ve seen, this is both the most ingenious and somewhat scary. A pair of bored yet crafty American (not Dutch!) fellows took a retired Army Drone and re-deployed it with a new, lesser violent mission — to sniff for WiFi networks. Controlling the drone only needs human intervention for takeoff and landing. Once up in the air, pre-plotted routes using Google Earth keep the plane on it’s dedicated route.
Inside the drone, the downward facing WiFi antenna located in the nose is good for ~1,000sq. ft. of coverage at 400 feet up. After said wireless signals are sniffed and an appropriate network found, the drone will then automatically circle the area and continue feeding network packets back to hacker HQ, from which the hacking pair can eventually break into the network. And to think, they could be on the other side of the world as the drone. Again, awesome in implementation, scary in regards to potential scenarios.
But let’s be real, we all want a remote WiFi sniffing drone. It’s that awesome…
- December 17, 2009 8:10 am
Unmanned aircraft are one of the greatest tools the US Military currently has in their arsenal. The humanless aircraft are able to go into remote regions and zones that would otherwise be too dangerous or inhospitable for human engagement. The only human interaction with the aircraft comes by way of a guy sitting behind a little TV screen controlling a few buttons and joystiqs. Easy. Safe. Simple.
The data captured by these drones is as one would expect, highly classified as the usual missions for these bodiless wonders often consist of spying with an ultimate focus on be covert. Not being physically seen is good and all, but this is the 21st century. The world is becoming increasingly digital, opening up new doors for all kinds of bad guys and attack methods.
With that said, would it shock or surprise you to know that the US Military is having feeds from unmanned aircraft “hijacked”? According to the WSJ, insurgents abroad are basically pointing their satellites up into the sky and using a widely available $25 piece of software (aka: network snooper) to hone in and download the drone/unmanned aircraft’s video feeds sailing through the wireless airwaves. Naturally, this presents a fundamental national security problem. What good is sneaking up on the enemy with a drone if the enemy can see exactly where it’s going?
The question that comes to my mind first and foremost: Why is the US Military of all people using unencrypted video feeds in such a volatile area? You’d think given the insurgents insatiable appetite to blow us all away would make the US Military a tad more careful with these sorts of things. Any admission of this story whether an actual admission or flat out denial will never mean anything. Regardless, if they are in fact running drones around the world with any link in the system unencrypted, we’ll never know. It will ultimately be labeled a “false rumor” for all eternity as the military will deny deny deny.
Scary stuff.
CrunchGear
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