Dutch Hackers Create Wi-Fi Sniffing Drone

An anonymous reader writes "The WASP, or Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform, has been built out of a hobby-grade airframe and open source Ardupilot autopilot, reports sUASnews. In the words of the Rabbit-Hole website, it's a 'Small Scale, Open Source UAV using off the shelf components. Designed to provide a vehicle to project cyber-offensive and defensive capabilities, and visual / electronic surveillance over distance cheaply and with little risk.'" Want a drone of your own? The makers have some pointers to helpful resources.

Comments

Did it actually fly? Broken wing.

[Barryke]

The photoslides end with a mere broken wing on the takeoff strip. Did it actually fly?

Re:Did it actually fly? Broken wing.

[Anonymous Coward]

The makers of the WASP give an interview in the s7e25 episode of Hak5, where they explain that the platform currently has a very tight flight envelope. It's almost always on the brink of crashing. Quote: "It flies much like a wounded harbor seal would. [...] It's a real juggling act to keep it in the air."

Re:Did it actually fly? Broken wing.

[shadowrat]

They usually start out fine, but my act incorporates torches and chainsaws.

Yes but...

[Kildjean]

Aren't all remote control aircraft (hobbyist planes in particular) UAV's?

Re:Yes but...

[Anonymous Coward]

The meaning of "unmanned" extends to the pilot on the ground. UAVs don't have people on board and can fly more than a straight line in a controlled manner without immediate control input from a pilot on the ground. It's technically illegal to fly UAVs without visual contact in visual flight rules air space.

Re:Yes but...

[asynchronous13]

It's technically illegal to fly UAVs without visual contact in visual flight rules air space.

Not quite.

The FAA controls the national airspace with a white-list approach. Everything is illegal unless a specific category of safe flight has been defined. AC 91-57 defines the Model Aircraft Operating Standards and creates a specific legal exemption for vehicles flown for recreational purposes. This exemption also applies to UAVs, provided they are flown for recreational purposes. However, there is no exemption for operating a UAV for commercial purposes. Even flying an R/C aircraft is illegal if the operator attaches a camera and attempts to sell the resulting aerial imagery!

The FAA recognizes that people and companies other than modelers might be flying UAS with the mistaken understanding that they are legally operating under the authority of AC 91–57. AC 91–57 only applies to modelers, and thus specifically excludes its use by persons or companies for business purposes.
-- from FAA–2006–25714, Unmanned Aircraft Operations in the National Airspace System; Notice of Policy; Opportunity for Feedback (FAA link to pdf is down right now)

Technically, you or I could fly a 1:1 scale F-22 Raptor, but only if it were for recreational purposes.

Awesome, Google Window View in 5,4,3.......

[qwerty8ytrewq]

This is cool, I love that the science fiction future is so present in our world right now, and the power of 'it is possible, so we did it this way' I am quite amused by the quote" You don’t have to join too many dots for potential misuse." and I look forward to outrageous innovative uses by paparazzi, peeping toms, pervs, police, pyromaniacs, pilferers, pidgeon racers......

Re:Awesome, Google Window View in 5,4,3.......

[Fumus]

I think I'll start a company selling curtains with Goatse on them.

Another Obvious Application

[hyades1]

It would have been nice to have a few camera-bearing drones bopping around over the recent G-20 meeting in Toronto, out of the immediate reach of gentlemen with badges, batons and guns. The police seem oddly selective about video evidence they use in court and video evidence that somehow goes missing whenever the defense requests it.

Re:Another Obvious Application

[Israfels]

I'd be more worried about the "peaceful protesters" throwing stuff at my expensive flying camera.

I want a hunter-killer drone...

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

How about a hunter-killer drone that sniffs out other drones, homes in on their telemetrics and blows them up in a blazing fireball of glory!
That's the kind of shit I want to see.

Re:I want a hunter-killer drone...

[gclef]

It won't be long...the weapon part (or at least fireworks) has already been done

Turns out there is one fatal flaw

[Anonymous Coward]

if the drone finds an open network it tends to crash because its too busy looking at roboporn to actually control itself.

lolcatz' caption

[FishTankX]

im in ur hotspot
sniffin' ur pornz

Re:Link is to Flash - boooo!

[zbyg]

Did you forget about the great features of Flash? If you choose Flash over HTML, you get:

• up to 90% shorter page loading times, because Flash is compiled and HTML is not
• increased security, because browsers are insecure, and plugins are secure by default
• unbelievable and very powerfull accesibility features
• a page which works and looks the same in any browser running on any computer

/sarcasm

UAV's that work!

[fuzzel]

As that thing does not even seem to fly and people always like to see movies, check: http://ng.uavp.ch/ for a huge amount of information about NG-UAVP's (Next Generation Universal Areal Video Platform) of course all open source hard and software.

Multiple videos of WORKING drones over here: http://ng.uavp.ch/moin/Videos

Also, don't forget to check this cool cyber-cute overload: Quadrocopter Drone Has Its Own Little Home :)

Btw, what is so special about adding a wireless card/stick to a drone and letting it sniff the airwaves? :)

This and Google.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the difference between this and Google sniffing wi-fi, and getting flack for it? Makes no sense why Google gets whacked for something like this.

Re:This and Google.

[LingNoi]

There is no difference and I find it funny how the horde of Google bashers and privacy nuts don't appear until there are certain keywords in a summary.

cue the anti-aircraft weapons

[FudRucker]

if i see some little drones buzzing my home i will turn the garden hose on it.

Re:I want one

[Alphathon]

I don't know if you were simply using it's to spite the troll or not but I'm fairly sure its is correct. Unlike most words the apostrophe is only added when it's a contraction of "it is", "it has" etc, not to indicate "belonging to it" (possessive). The GP was a troll to be sure, but an accurate troll nonetheless.

Strap on a brick of c4

[HeckRuler]

Ahh, the age of cheap home-built UAVs. All sorts of applications. Like this wi-fi sniffing, which is pretty neat.

But strap a modestly sized brick of C-4 and you have yourself a (very slow) smart missile.