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ProxyGambit Replaces Defunct ProxyHam
msm1267 writes: Hardware hacker Samy Kamkar has picked up where anonymity device ProxyHam left off. After a DEF CON talk on ProxyHam was mysteriously called off, Kamkar went to work on developing ProxyGambit, a similar device that allows a user to access the Internet without revealing their physical location.
A description on Kamkar's site says ProxyGambit fractures traffic from the Internet through long distance radio links or reverse-tunneled GSM bridges that connect and exit the Internet through wireless networks far from the user's physical location. ProxyHam did not put as much distance between the user and device as ProxyGambit, and routed its signal over Wi-Fi and radio connections. Kamkar said his approach makes it several times more difficult to determine where the original traffic is coming from.
A description on Kamkar's site says ProxyGambit fractures traffic from the Internet through long distance radio links or reverse-tunneled GSM bridges that connect and exit the Internet through wireless networks far from the user's physical location. ProxyHam did not put as much distance between the user and device as ProxyGambit, and routed its signal over Wi-Fi and radio connections. Kamkar said his approach makes it several times more difficult to determine where the original traffic is coming from.
He's proposed the idea of broadcasting the MEID/ESN of every phone that is ringing in every mobile phone "cell" in the world/via Satlink(over GPS as an example).
Rather than cell phones actively negotiating their position so that rings go to the correct location, the location discovery/authentication handshake occurs when the intended recipient responds to the beacon.
Has he integrated the total $$$ in waste for the next 10-20 years at the current market rate for mobile data? I imagine this would waste millions-billions of dollars in unnecessary use of the wireless spectrum for a "anonymity" feature that is desired by less than 1% of all users.
There are much cheaper ways to provide anonymity to those 1% of users.