Eavesdropping droneNew drone listens in on cell phone calls and hacks Wi-Fi networks
At this week’s annual Defcon security conference for hackers, two hobbyists will showcase their sophisticated unmanned Wi-Fi detecting, cell-phone eavesdropping spy drone; the drone was assembled using an old Army target drone that had been converted to run on electric batteries and is now equipped with an HD camera, eleven antennas, and a cigarette pack sized computer that is loaded with hacking tools
Developer Mike Tassey with his WASP // Source: veteknoloji.com
At this week’s annual Defcon security conference for hackers, two hobbyists will showcase their sophisticated unmanned Wi-Fi detecting, cell-phone eavesdropping spy drone.
The experimental drone weighs in at fourteen pounds and has a six foot wingspan and was built by a former Air Force official and an ex-airplane hobby shop owner who both have decades of experience working as computer specialists for the military.
The drone was assembled using an old Army target drone that had been converted to run on electric batteries and is now equipped with an HD camera, eleven antennas, and a cigarette pack sized computer that is loaded with hacking tools like a BackTrack testing toolset and a custom-designed 340 million word diction that can be used for brute-force guessing of passwords. The drone can also be programmed to automatically fly along a course and loiter in a given area.
The two creators, Mike Tassey and Richard Perkins, have named the drone the Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform or “WASP” for short.
WASP is capable of hacking into Wi-Fi networks and even covertly tapping into cell phone conversations. The drone can mimic GSM cell phone towers to trick targeted phones in a certain area into connecting to the plane’s antenna rather than its usual carrier, allowing the drone to record phone calls and text messages which it then stores on a thirty-two gigabyte hard drive.
“Ideally, the target won’t even know he’s being spied on,” said Tassey.
The two inventors were careful to avoid violating Federal Communications Commission regulations by only using a portion of the radio frequency band designated for Ham radios for their antennae.
So far the two have only tested the drone’s phone tapping capabilities in isolated areas to ensure that they did not accidentally tap into an unsuspecting individual’s phone call.
“We want to make sure we’re not stepping on any cell providers’ toes,” Tassey said.
The two inventors say they built the drone as a demonstration to showcase the vulnerability of government and corporate facilities to a covert eavesdropping device like theirs.
“We wanted to bring to light how far the consumer industry has progressed, to the point where public has access to technologies that put companies, and even governments at risk from this new threat vector that they’re not aware of,” explained Perkins.
