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DARPA Funding a $50 Drone-Droppable Spy Computer
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "At the Shmoocon security conference, researcher Brendan O'Connor plans to present the F-BOMB, or Falling or Ballistically-launched Object that Makes Backdoors. Built from just the disassembled hardware in a commercially-available PogoPlug mini-computer, a few tiny antennae, eight gigabytes of flash memory and some 3D-printed plastic casing, the F-BOMB serves as 3.5"-by-4"-by-1" spy computer. With a contract from DARPA, O'Connor has designed the cheap gadgets to be spy nodes, ready to be dropped from a drone, plugged inconspicuously into a wall socket, (one model impersonates a carbon monoxide detector) thrown over a barrier, or otherwise put into irretrievable positions to quietly collect data and send it back to the owner over any available Wi-Fi network. O'Connor built his prototypes with gear that added up to just $46 each, so sacrificing one for a single use is affordable."
But what happened to using cockroaches as the spies of the future?
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I drop F-bombs all the time, at a considerably cheaper cost.
And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
They respond unfavorably to being impacted by a presidential shoe.
Which has more power: the hammer, or the anvil?
They're calling it the F-BOMB? Fuck that.
"over any available Wi-Fi network."
In cities this may not be a problem (though who runs an unencrypted Wifi AP in the city?!!?!?) but in rural areas I suspect WIFI may be hard to come by. It needs a better backup.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
"over any available Wi-Fi network."
In cities this may not be a problem (though who runs an unencrypted Wifi AP in the city?!!?!?) but in rural areas I suspect WIFI may be hard to come by. It needs a better backup.
So avoid AT&T territory...
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Is it normal for a warzone to have functioning WiFi?
Sure, just like it's normal to take things that drop out of the sky and plug them into the wall.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
They have limited access cyber cafes that run a government monitored and filtered internet via a North Korean Linux distribution. Linux being used as a tool of oppression really pisses me off.
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I recently started a similar project based on the $23 TPLink TL-WR703N travel router. Without any need for soldering or other "hardware hacking" you can build a battery-operated network drop box running OpenWrt linux.
http://www.minipwner.com/
There is a serial interface on the circuit board for the WR703N but you have to crack the box and do some soldering to connect to it. I've been toying with the idea to do just that to interface it with an arduino/parallax processor or sensors or whatever. I'm also playing with connecting a USB sound card and adding a microphone to record audio in the local range of the box.
If you really want to break the enemy send them a Nintendo Wii.
The advice of Jimmy Buffett - Fly over and drop millions of five dollar bills. A week later, fly over and drop off mail order catalogs. Peace, full employement and um.. underwear.
Often wondred if that approach would actually be more effective.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Yeah, that'd be ample reason to invade them. Gotta be a bigtime market there for cheap throwaway cell phones, overpriced coffee and all the rest of the 'benefits' of 'civilisation'. They find any oil under Pyongyang yet?
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Can you build a Beowulf cluster if a B52 carpet bombs you with these?
Not all of 'us' feel as you do. Most of 'us' do it purely out of curiosity, not because we want to impress some stranger on a forum somewhere. Hackers make the world go round, money keeps the bills paid. So just because he won't be welcomed in your basement does not mean I won't invite him down to mine.
Sure, just like it's normal to take things that drop out of the sky and plug them into the wall.
Yup, that's normal.
According to a test run by Homeland Security:
Computer disks and USB sticks were dropped in parking lots of government buildings and private contractors, and 60% of the people who picked them up plugged the devices into office computers. And if the drive or CD had an official logo on it, 90% were installed.
Borrowed from Bruce Schneier ( http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/06/yet_another_peo.html )
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
If you drop it from a drone? Some retard is going to say oh, look a free carbon monoxide detector. I need to plug this into my mud hut next to my poppy field, how convenient! If you have to have them plugged in, why not just send them with the troops?
If we can make tracking devices that we use on whales, sharks, bears, etc, that are self powered, unobtrusive to the animal, and auto-upload to satellite or base station, we have to rely on some twerp plugging in the device -and- for free WiFi to be available for a military device? Pshaw.
And people complain about dropping DARPA funding. With idiotic projects like this we damn sure should.
Silence is a state of mime.
Nevermind the PI's are JUST NOW starting production, its in the fucking second sentence!
"Built from just the disassembled hardware in a commercially-available PogoPlug mini-computer"
now goto a website called google.com and type in PogoPlug and see what pops up ... now is that a Raspberry PI?
damnit man!
If you're going to perform an act of war, it would be best to target their military installations. Targeting the general public with Trojan Remote Detonation Phones just might cause a bit more backlash than needed.
Why not just drop $1.00 thumb drives loaded with spying software? 95% of the folks that find them will simply plug them into their computers (home or work) and "you're in".
If I were ever impaneled on a jury and this sort of thing were submitted as evidence by the prosecution and the defendant were "majority", nullification.
I am WHITE
I eat PORK
I own PROPERTY
How DARE you treat those like me and those as one would the enemy for the sake of buying crude petroleum and selling Treasuries!
Also Borrowed from the same source:
The problem is that the OS trusts random USB sticks. The problem is that the OS will automatically run a program that can install malware from a USB stick. The problem is that it isn't safe to plug a USB stick into a computer.
To which the proper response is:
The problem is the operating system you've chosen Mr. Schneier.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
What exactly are you imagining a "warzone" is in this day and age?
Cleveland?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
You know Mr. Schneier doesn't actually get to choose the OS for every machine in the world (much as he might like to), right? As long as some people (most of whom are neither the famous security analyst Bruce Schneier, nor any other Mr. Schneier) do in fact choose Windows for real installations, that makes Windows's trust of random USB sticks a real problem. What sort of security analyst do you suppose sticks their head in the sand?
Moreover, whatever OS you'd favor (I'd guess Linux, though with a 5-digit UID you've probably actually heard of other free *N*Xen) is likely vulnerable as well. No, not to the simple autorun approach, since it doesn't trust filesystems -- but it probably does trust USB sticks plugged in. Say the USB stick contains a hub, a mass storage device, and an HID* -- can you tell me your favored OS, in a typical desktop config, will not accept keystrokes and pointer commands from the HID?
* I'm sure it's obvious, but the HID could either inject a stored keystroke sequence (e.g. to download an exploit from the internet), or receive remote commands via RF -- combine with a TEMPEST rig to maximize shits and giggles.