Battery-Powered Transmitter Could Crash A City's 4G Network

DavidGilbert99 writes "With a £400 transmitter, a laptop and a little knowledge you could bring down an entire city's high-speed 4G network. This information comes from research carried out in the U.S. into the possibility of using LTE networks as the basis for a next-generation emergency response communications system. Jeff Reed, director of the wireless research group at Virginia Tech, along with research assistant Marc Lichtman, described the vulnerabilities to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which advises the White House on telecom and information policy. 'If LTE technology is to be used for the air interface of the public safety network, then we should consider the types of jamming attacks that could occur five or ten years from now (PDF). It is very possible for radio jamming to accompany a terrorist attack, for the purpose of preventing communications and increasing destruction,' Reed said."

Comments

This already exists in the wild

[Anonymous Coward]

AT+T has apparently been using this for months, in almost every major city

Re:This already exists in the wild

[game kid]

Thank you for your concern. At at&t(R), our commitment(tm) to rebuilding the nation's largest 4G network this year with your input has not wavered. However, our cozy government relationship requires us to install multiple backdoors, electronic and otherwise, and our Security budget was beginning to cut into our Invite Government Representatives Into Boardroom For Lobbying And Slash Or Trophywife Swapping budget.

As such, we have decided to retain the mandatory backdoors but leave them open to these minor vulnerabilities. The occasional permanent loss of an antenna, your Facebook account's integrity, or that one guy in Customer Service who decides to blow a whistle on us does not preclude your required payment of the 2012 Nation's Largest 4G Network Improvements Fee, or the upcoming 2013 Nation's Largest 4G Network Improvements Fee (which we hereby announce in this sentence, as double the 2012 version in all cases), even though both would be entirely too small to buy such high-value targets and high-class lays in such high volume.

Thank you again for choosing at&t(R), now with the nation's tallest paperweights. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or let us track you to your house through any other method imaginable.

What's the point?

[rabtech]

What's the point here? You can do the same thing with all the proprietary public safety network gear various vendors are peddling - they are mostly hilariously insecure. Or if you have a portable generator, just flood the public safety band with interference. It accomplishes the same thing.

The article claims older 3G and 2G networks would still work if LTE were jammed but that's completely false. There are a ton of ways to jam those by using fake femtocell pilot signals or otherwise interfering with synchronization signals.

In fact the MIMO technology of LTE could make it slightly harder to jam if the base stations are properly filtering stray signals. Use car-mounted MIMO for the user-side and you would get something way better than any of the existing systems at resisting interference.

Re:Police Box

[TubeSteak]

Hardlined police boxes with a wireless AP would make for a vastly more robust network than using the commercial LTE towers.
Sometimes the old ways are best.

Re:For how long though?

[magic maverick]

Hope in a taxi or bus, drive around, turn off transmitter, walk some way, hope on another bus, turn it on again, turn it off again. Basically keep moving, make the movement sufficiently random, any you won't get caught. OK, a car battery is a bit heavy, but it's not that heavy that you can't carry it around on your lap.

Regarding the "oh noz terrorists", not everything has to be linked to terrorists, isn't it more likely that in the event of a "terrorist" attack, the system would be brought down by people just trying to call the emergency number or friends and family? And anyway, haven't I read about various authorities around the world wanting a switch to turn off the phone networks in the event of a terrorist attack?

So when the "terrorists" do it, it's bad, but when the authorities do it, it's just fine...

Re:Police Box

[Jason Levine]

But would those police boxes be bigger on the inside?

Re:Invasion!

[wonkey_monkey]

There's another shitty movie on the way and Disney don't want word of mouth spreading?

Mod parent up.

[khasim]

I don't know what the line:

With a £400 transmitter, a laptop and a little knowledge you could bring down an entire city's high-speed 4G network.

came from but it is 100% false (unless you are talking about a very, very small "city".

This "attack" is just broadcasting noise and messing with communication protocols. So the range is limited to the coverage area of the transmitter. Including dead zones where there is too much concrete and steel for the transmitter to get through.

So you should see the same pattern for blocking as you do for regular access. With a similar requirement for blocking as for coverage.

Re:Ham Radio Baby!!!

[ATestR]

More than two! Latest estimates that I've heard are that there are 600,000+ Hams in the US.

Re:For how long though?

[houghi]

If you are a terrorist, it would not matter. Even if they were all 100 found within 1 hour and deactivated, the real result would be delivered by the media. Can you imagine the headlines if such a thing would happen?

13 guys with box cutters saw to it that we can not take a nail-clipper onto a plane. The result of their action is that laws have been created that limit everybodyâ(TM)s rights all over the world.

The fear the media would create is so much more then what the terrerists could do themselves. Fear nothing but fear itself and that is what will be crated: fear.

Re:Ham Radio Baby!!!

[dnahelicase]

More than two! Latest estimates that I've heard are that there are 600,000+ Hams in the US.

If you follow the news during any one of the big disasters in the past few years, it seems that Hams are the only ones that consistently are organized, prepared, and react immediately.

Re:Yes, but think of the Lulz!

[Beardo the Bearded]

Interestingly, I found and reported a similar vulnerability in the P25 radio system about six years ago.

Nothing's happened. You can jam all the first responder radios in a city with a very small amount of hardware and a copy of the protocol.