The DARPA-Funded Power Strip That Will Hack Your Network

An anonymous reader writes "The Power Pwn may look like a power strip, but it's actually a DARPA-funded hacking tool for launching remotely-activated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet attacks. If you see one around the office, make a point to ask if it's supposed to be there. Pwnie Express, which developed the $1,295 tool, says it's 'a fully-integrated enterprise-class penetration testing platform.' That's great, but the company also notes its 'ingenious form-factor' (again, look at the above picture) and 'highly-integrated/modular hardware design,' which to me makes it look like the perfect gizmo for nefarious purposes."

Comments

Translation

[bashibazouk]

The opposition (who ever they may be) has figured out that we were using this device. Word has gotten out. We no longer need it. You may now do with it as you wish...

Re:There is a perfectly logical explanation

[Tastecicles]

When I have been around data installations, everything got marked and recorded - component boards, memory sticks, hard drives, cabinets, power strips, UPS bricks, cables, even down to any piece of plastic that could potentially house a small bug (such as three pin plugs, notwithstanding the fact that I insisted on using plugs that were moulded to the cable at both ends). During the regular hardware audits, every device, cable and connector was checked against the catalogue. Anything that didn't match up was ripped out immediately and replaced with a known quantity.

If I didn't install it, it didn't belong.