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Researchers Turn Home Wi-Fi Router Into Spy Device
hypnosec writes "Researchers at University College of London have applied principles of radar used in defense and designed a detector using home based Wi-Fi routers to spy on people across walls. Using the principles behind the Doppler effect ... Karl Woodbridge and Kevin Chetty, at University College London, have built a prototype unit that uses Wi-Fi signals and recognizes frequency changes to detect moving objects. The size of the prototype unit is more or less the size of a suitcase. The unit contains a radio receiver comprising of two antennas and a signal-processing unit. The duo carried out test runs and ... they managed to determine a person's location, speed, and direction (even through a one foot thick brick wall). The device could be used to spot intruders, monitor children or the elderly, and could even be used in military applications."
Hi there. NSA here. We'd like to ask everyone to stop copying our ideas. Unfortunately we can't patent them for obvious reasons, but we can block you just as much under the 'National Security' stamp, so just forget about it. Also just letting you know we are pushing for legislation to ban auto-frequency shifting routers and any rapidly moving iron object in the premises that may scatter signals. But for the record; this works just as well with your cordless phone, cellphone, radio controlled car and microwave, so switching of your router really doesn't help you. And since you propagate the radio signals voluntarily the fourth amendment also doesn't apply. (Please don't conclude we care about the constitution - We've had this argument already) Oh yeah, before I forget; dwellings that emit NO radio signals are automatically marked for surveillance and occupants placed on the no-fly list.
Well, just wait for the FUCK act (Facebook Update Complete Knowledge act). That will make it illegal to not put everything about yourself on Facebook.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Police forces will be pre-ordering this technology and asking for demonstrations within the next few days. Being able to spy on someone without a warrant or oversight is an aphrodisiac for cops.
Work like no one is watching. Dance like you've never been hurt. Make love like you don't need the money.
Actually I think Intelligence Agencies would be the first to get it. If they don't already have it, of course.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
So, can hackers figure out a way to feed these things wrong information so the output image looks like a shock site of your choosing?
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Passive radar has been researched and used for a while now, which is cool. And the reported thing would be cool too, if it would be passive and if it would not require a custom-built active-signal based wifi device with the size of a suitcase which is anything but covert. Also, through-the-wall radars have been used for a time, which don't provide too much detail, but can tell at least the number of moving objects and locate them. Again, this would be quite nice if it wouldn't require the placement of a custom device, or if it does, then it should be quite much smaller and not different in size or looks from any other router you can buy, and then at least they could place them in banks or wherever.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
So does that mean if I'm exploring out in the woods, and I stumble upon a cave entrance, that the cave didn't exist prior to my discovery?
If I'm researching some technology and I stumble upon a related patent, that the patent didn't exist before I found it? Great, that means I just need to stumble across every patent in the USPTO, and I own every technology in existence!!
Screw the rest of the steps, just:
5. PROFIT!!!!1!
Your interpretation is completely at odds with decades of history of this phrase.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_radar
Passive radar uses radio sources, like TV and FM stations, instead of having its own transmitter. The receiver detects the direct signal from the transmitter and the signal reflected from the target. The trick is to separate the two. Using the doppler effect does that nicely for moving targets.
The advantage of passive radar is that it can't be detected.
The radar in TFA doesn't need to be undetectable, the targets probably don't have detectors. It could have its own transmitter. That would simplify the receiver design a lot. The transmitter is quite simple and cheap, being a GUNN diode or something like that. It would also require a directional transmitting antenna. Developing such a device would be much cheaper and it would work much better.
Given that the researchers did the job the hard way, their accomplishment is quite impressive. On the other hand, we haven't seen a fully field tested version. There is a large gap between a lab demo under controlled circumstances and an actual useable device.
The headline is a bit misleading. They did not convert a Wifi station to a spy device, but created a completely separate device to interpret Wifi signals and their reflections in a building.
No it doesn't. Stumbled upon the concept implies the concept was NOT there before, and while researching a related matter, somone had the idea of radar, independantly. So, the quote does indeed suggest that the navy invented radar.
Incorrect. Stumbling upon something literally refers to the act of coming upon something; it does not imply existence of that something either way, not that that something existed before, nor that that something didn't exist before. You can stumble upon radar technology itself just as much as you can stumble upon the fact that someone else stumbled upon it.
In the hand of all good US army and intelligence everything is used for good... anyone else using it will be for bad bad terrorism...
Finding new ways to spy on people is something we seem to be really good at here in the UK
Now I have to run Wild Weasel missions against my own router.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Ok, it can be used to detect if you are about to be attacked by zombies or RIAA agents.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Dont need to. just buy "magnetic paint" at home depot and paint your walls. it's a very high concentration of iron in the paint and it blocks RF quite well.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Of course it is literally impossible to stumble upon the idea of radar technology...
So cheating with wallhacks is bad? Not for a christian -- Jesus abused an item cloning bug himself.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Do zombies go by smell? Because in that case peppering the walls with bullets where you detect silhouettes will just help them find you quicker, and smelling nice just makes it worse :/
I on the other hand won't have to change a thing. I'll just sit here like I always do, quietly, reading slashdot covered in a thick crust of dead skin and feces, waiting to get last post. I'm ready!
Nope. metal reflects RF if grounded, floating or charged with 10,000 volts.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.