Slashdot Mirror
Build Your Own Bluetooth Sniper Rifle
Jim Buzbee writes "I don't think I'd do it, but these guys built a Bluetooth Sniper rifle, went to the roof of a downtown Los Angles skyscraper and pointed it at nearby buildings. See what they found, and if you're so inclined, they'll show how to build your own and maybe, just maybe, you too can snag Paris Hilton's address book." (Which was not snagged via Bluetooth snooping, as the article points out.) This version looks a bit more polished than the one mentioned last August.
From the article:
We decided to quickly conclude the scan, given police activity in the area earlier in the day from a bomb scare.
You too can get shot for looking like a terrorist!
A latent existence
...is human curiosity. Yes, there are many dangers from snooping, and there have been recent reports of prototype Bluetooth viruses - but even upgraded and securer versions of the protocol won't stop the fact that you just won't be able to refuse opening that interesting looking picture somebody is trying to send you.
I've seen it a lot at my school, whereby a particularly dodgy or deprecating picture (no goatse yet, but can't be long) is passed along in the lounges by somebody simply searching for Bluetooth phones and sending a pic, which simply can't be refused ("because it might be something important!!!"). I'd say it's even more tempting to accept a Bluetoothed file than an email attachment, because in Bluetooth you're only getting the bare information about a file (ie, the size of it and file type), whereas you can generally filter out automatically generated email viruses with ease...
The solution is to turn Bluetooth off all the time except when you want to use it (something I do anyway, since it conserves battery power), but a surprisingly large number of people seem to have it on all the time.
It's not even funny any more how fast these sites go down. It doesn't do the site owner or us any good - once again, what will it take for Slashdot to implement a mirror system?
For example... this one.
Meep meep
...this is idiotic. Not their little invention (which is pretty slick), but their test on top of a skyscraper. Are you really that fucking stupid? A couple of guys with a sniper rifle sitting on top of a tall building is just asking for trouble. Probably doesn't even have a license for it. This is even more stupid than that guy who shined a laser into an airplane cockpit on more than one occasion. I've done some dumb things in my life, but Jesus Fucking Christ. Cops have killed people for less than that.