Slashdot Mirror


Poachers Are Trying To Hack Animal Tracking Systems (helpnetsecurity.com)

Orome1 quotes a report from Help Net Security: Animal tracking through electronic tagging has helped researchers gain insight into the lives of many wild animal species, but can also be misused by wildlife poachers, hunters, animal-persecution groups and people interested in seeing and interacting with the animals -- all to the detriment of our animal brethren. A recent paper by a group of researchers from several Canadian and U.S. universities has pointed to several instances of misuse or attempted misuse of the tracking technology. The researchers believe that instances of poachers intercepting signals to track animals down are under-reported, as the researchers and conservationists are worried about losing funding. The researchers have also noted that photographers and people interested in seeing wild animals have been known to acquire and use tracking equipment, and they are worried that "frequent exposure of animals to people can habituate them to human interaction, which at minimum alters the animal's natural behavior, thus negatively influencing research findings." The tagging devices are usually collars with GPS or radio transmitters, and cost between 150 and 4,000 British pounds, The Times reports. But, unfortunately, security measures for protecting their signal are not adequate.

70 comments

  1. Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Preferably in a town square.

    This might stop poachers.

    1. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What's the limit on poachers? Hate to go over, that would be poaching...

    2. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans forcing transmitters without encryption on helpless animals should be tortured in the town square. FTFY.

    3. Re: Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hmm, this could be useful. Let them think it's the signal of a male elephant, then when they get there...trap! It's a bunch of snipers to murder all the poachers.

    4. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you? The Sheriff of Nottingham?

    5. Re: Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is the correct answer.

    6. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep in mind that the reason the animals are trackable is because it's transmitting. Therefor anyone who wants to track the animal only needs to know the frequency, nothing more. It doesn't matter if it's encrypted or not.

      Now if you want to fuck over the poachers, what you need are decoys that take pictures of the poachers.

    7. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Maavin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No. The poachers are poor, stupid fucks who need the money and couldn't care less for the animals.
      The ONLY way would be going after their "customers".
      Anyone buying that stuff should face at least from half a year's salary to serius prison time.

      But I can imagine that most of them sit in Russia, China and maybe Japan. And their government doesn't give a fuck, too. So, little hope there...

      --


      Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
    8. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by jandersen · · Score: 1

      No. The poachers are poor, stupid fucks who need the money and couldn't care less for the animals.
      The ONLY way would be going after their "customers".
      Anyone buying that stuff should face at least from half a year's salary to serius prison time.

      An important part of solving the problem is to go after the customers, but punishment alone won't help; education, in particular of the children, will have to be a major part of it. That was a major part of why we became much more aware of envirnmental issues in the West: parents may reject what the government or campaigners tell them, but they find it hard to resist when their children disapprove of what they do.

      The other important part of the solution must be to make poaching less desirable to the poachers; criminalising poaching is of course part of it, but if the legal alternatives all mean hard work and poverty, then crime seems attractive all the same.

    9. Re: Poachers should be tortured when caught by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      i have said it before. man made it, man can break it but leave the animals alone or i will buy a bic ligher and a gallon of gas.

    10. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've always thought anyone who buys ivory should have it, shall we say, inserted. The more you buy, the less comfortable it will be.

    11. Re: Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In this case, I can say that all poaching is probably bad.

      Where I live, if you've got an empty freezer and you're legitimately hungry and unable to acquire food, I will help you selectively harvest a white tail deer. I will help yo bag more fish than allowed if, and only if, your other option is malnourishment or death.

      We're not running low on game animals and the animals are consumed with little to no waste.

      It's not that black and white, or it shouldn't be.

    12. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      Define "poacher":

      (a) Bastards slaughtering elephants with automatic weapons for Ivory? String 'em up, (if you can catch them).

      http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fa...

      (b) Desperate people in conflict-ravaged areas needing any food they can get their hands on? Maybe not.

      Meanwhile, the biggest cause of megafauna and other "wild" animal extinction is not poaching; it's habitat loss.
      You want to torture to death large swathes of populations in Africa, South America, India and China?

    13. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Maavin · · Score: 1

      that's true... Education and alternatives would indeed fix many problems there...

      --


      Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
    14. Re: Poachers should be tortured when caught by gnick · · Score: 1

      We're not running low on game animals and the animals are consumed with little to no waste.

      Presumably, the animals that are being tagged and tracked are not the ones that are plentiful in the wild (TFA mentions tigers, white sharks, and wolves.) I'm also making the assumption that these animals are not being hunted to stave off starvation - Otherwise surely they'd be hunting more common game. I know you're just trying to point out that poaching isn't entirely black and white, but when you're hunting tagged animals it sure seems that way.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    15. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by gnick · · Score: 1

      Now if you want to fuck over the poachers, what you need are decoys that take pictures of the poachers.

      I think the only way taking a picture of a poacher would have any impact would be through a scope with a thunderous flash.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    16. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, but, I thought we were supposed to go after the poachers and not the customers? At least, that's what I've learned any time child porn is brought up, that we shouldn't go after the customers, we should go after the producers. So why is this different?

    17. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What education?
      If you want to buy a (really) endangered species, you must be a rich person. The prices are high. Poor people do not have that kind of money.
      So, most of the buyers are probably with university education (lot of them are government employees in high places) or with business education.

    18. Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Poachers in the U.S. tend to be well off. At least in my neighborhood, they drive by at night in nice trucks and large spotlights looking for deer and wolves to shoot.

  2. animal-persecution groups by Nutria · · Score: 1

    What????

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:animal-persecution groups by turkeydance · · Score: 1

      those would be the poachers and the people who put the trackers on them.

    2. Re:animal-persecution groups by Nutria · · Score: 1

      But those had already been itemized in her list of no-goodniks.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  3. our animal brethren. by Nutria · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Who is Zeljka Zorz to think that animals are our brothers?

    Doesn't this loon know that they're our cousins? Very, very, distant cousins.

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    1. Re:our animal brethren. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Our cousins sure are tasty though. Ommmmnomnom....

    2. Re:our animal brethren. by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      Who is Zeljka Zorz to think that animals are our brothers?

      Doesn't this loon know that they're our cousins? Very, very, distant cousins.

      Does that mean in some states its legal to marry them? I know of at least one Pope who married his horse :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    3. Re:our animal brethren. by Nutria · · Score: 1

      Caligula allegedly made his horse a Senator, but I've found no stories that a Pope married a horse.

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    4. Re:our animal brethren. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And in reality, even that Caligulas horse-story is probably fake news.

      According to the ancient historian Suetonius, the Roman emperor known as Caligula loved one of his horses, Incitatus, so much that he gave the steed a marble stall, an ivory manger, a jeweled collar and even a house. Another chronicler, Cassius Dio, later wrote that servants fed the animal oats mixed with gold flakes. Famous for his madness and brutality, Caligula allegedly committed incest with his sisters, fed prisoners to wild beasts and had conversations with the moon—so coddling a beloved horse might seem among the lesser of his various evils. But did he really plan to make Incitatus a consul and only fail to do so because his assassination happened first, as Suetonius would have us believe?

      Like much of what we think we know about Caligula, the story of Incitatus’ consulship comes from a writer who lived decades after the maligned emperor’s four-year reign. Historians think that Suetonius and Dio based their scathing accounts of his life on rumors and legends—or simply fabricated sensational tales that turned a not-so-great ruler into an epic villain. Many scholars reject the notion that Caligula terrorized Rome with his unbridled madness, arguing that his fellow lawmakers would likely have whisked him out of power for such conduct. So while Caligula might have had an unusual fondness for his horse, it’s unlikely the emperor went so far as to appoint the stallion.

  4. why do you post this fake news garbage? by citizenr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There is in fact ZERO documented reports of this actually happening.

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
    1. Re:why do you post this fake news garbage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      "are"

    2. Re:why do you post this fake news garbage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Are" would actually be incorrect in the original sentence. Go back to school, AC.

    3. Re:why do you post this fake news garbage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Zero, except here, here and here.

      But if you don't want to believe that something isn't true, dismissing it as "fake news" is so much easier than doing five minutes of research with a web browser.

    4. Re:why do you post this fake news garbage? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WRONG, lol. There ARE in fact ZERO documented reports, plural.

    5. Re:why do you post this fake news garbage? by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

      There is in fact ZERO documented reports of this actually happening.

      There is quite some some evidence for even 1st world countries for prices like $40,000 a rhino tusk. If $40,000 was enough incentive in Paris to kill an animal in a freaking public zoo then how much is $40,000 in an African hutt with 5 starving kids all barefoot? You could live years without working for just one kill!

    6. Re:why do you post this fake news garbage? by citizenr · · Score: 1

      are you claiming poachers sniffed GPS tracker signal in order to locate Paris Zoo? or are you just stupid?

      --
      Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
  5. you don't have to 'hack' the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Animal tracking systems all broadcast their location, you don't need to 'hack' the system, or even be able to decode the signal, all you have to do is to be able to track the signal via direction finding techniques that haven't changed significantly in decades.

    1. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      If you can't decode the signal then you don't know if you're tracking an elephant, a dormouse, or a shark. Tagging of animals has become so widespread probably half the critters in Africa are putting out more Twitter posts than Trump.

      If you think you're tracking an elephant signal only to discover when you get close enough that it's an endangered hedgehog signal then you - as a poacher - are going to be pretty annoyed.

    2. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by mysidia · · Score: 2

      How about putting a receiver on tracking devices, and programming so they send No signal unless they first receive a coded transmission?

    3. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by Obfuscant · · Score: 0

      How about putting a receiver on tracking devices,

      You mean like this, which is essentially long-range RFID?

    4. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There aren't that many animals that are tracked, and it's really not that hard.

      Hams have frequent games where they track down signals that are MUCH harder to identify. It's even possible nowdays to have equipment that can uniquely identify each transmitter, even if they are set to send the same signal on the same frequency (it turns out that as you start to transmit, the signal takes a little bit of time to stabilize, and the pattern of stabilization is unique to the particular combination of components in that radio). Digital Signal Processing makes it easy to look at this startup signature.

    5. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's possible, but such systems are far more expensive.

      A transmitter can sleep using almost no power and then wake up and send it's id as a beacon for almost no power. This is what is most commonly used.

      Adding a GPS receiver to be able to send it's actual location is far more expensive (both in power and equipment)

      Adding a radio receiver to listen for commands requires power to run the receiver (if you try to send it a command while the receiver is powered off, nothing will happen)

      you can't easily set the receiver to listen at specific times, these devices are too cheap (both in money and power) to include an accurate clock.

      The vast majority of these things just send an id (the serial number of the device essentially) and no other information. Everything else is derived from triangulating on the signal from known locations or the database that maps the serial number to the animal in question.

      I've actually been involved in designing hardware for project lifesaver, both direction finding equipment designed for non-experts to use, and an advanced beacon that could be quiet/low power most of the time and only turn on if the wearer wandered too far away from where they are supposed to be. Unfortunately the owner of the company played games with the corporate bank account and killed the company (most people in it were willing to work for almost nothing, and were volunteers in various Search and Rescue organizations, doing this sort of thing on our own dimes, so we were all really upset when this guy ran off with the money).

      So I have more than a passing knowledge of the subject :-)

      note: I'm the one who posted the grandparent saying that this didn't require hacking.

    6. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you're saying is that a good DF rig will defeat any affordable device attached to an animal?

    7. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you can't easily set the receiver to listen at specific times, these devices are too cheap (both in money and power) to include an accurate clock.

      But an accurate clock is not needed for this use. The device you describe already has an (inaccurate) clock - the one that occationally turns on the transmitter to send the ID signal.

      A clock like that is good enough to turn on the receiver occationally to see if the researchers want a signal back. Powering up a receiver for a short while is cheaper than powering up a transmitter.

      This is how you deal with clock drift:

      Lets say you mark an elephant, and you don't want it to attract poachers. You will occationally want to get the location though. So the device power up the receiver once every day, for 10 minutes say. A cheap clock does not drift several minutes in only one day.

      5 minutes into that window, your ground station sends a signal. It is used as a time signal, resetting the cheap clock so it will be as accurate tomorrow as it was today. No accumulating clock drift here. You may also request a transmission to triangulate the elephant's position - or you may not if poachers have been seen in the area.

    8. Re:you don't have to 'hack' the system by mysidia · · Score: 1

      (if you try to send it a command while the receiver is powered off, nothing will happen)

      Power on the receiver only briefly once every X minutes, and listen for a tone -- If there is no tone, then sleep the receiver for X more minutes.

      If a tracker wants to locate the device, in order to access the tag, the tracker is required to transmit a Tone continuously on a specified frequency for X minutes to "capture" the receiver, Then, just before they stop sending the tone, they send something like a HMAC-Signed message containing List of Tag IDs to activate, And then a Sequential ID and current Timestamp to discourage replay attacks. The activated tag(s) will broadcast their location for X hours, before switching back into Listen/Sleep mode

  6. A Right To Be Left Alone by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 2

    Maybe some of the creatures and animals in nature should have a right to be left alone.

    It doesn't necessarily fit in with peoples' schemes to do "science" and get funding and a livelihood from doing said "science" but maybe if poachers are going to take advantage of the tracking devices (they always will) it's time to leave the animals alone.

    Just a thought point. It would be impossible for humans to leave all of nature alone... but really it's worth thinking about.

  7. Put tracker in land mine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    game over

  8. Put open bounties on poachers. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    Humans are by far the apex predator of this planet, so why not use that to poach the poachers? The "stick" method isn't doing nearly enough, so I think it's time to employ the "carrot" method for all the other humans. #GottaCatchEmBeforeTheyCatchEmAll

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Put open bounties on poachers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Use some fake animal trackers to lead the poachers into the arena, close the gate (I'm thinking a fence with a few 100 kV should do the trick) and let the snipers have their fun. Everybody wins!

  9. decoy trackers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    We could make decoy trackers that would draw the poachers to a place so they can be easily arrested.

    1. Re:decoy trackers by Obfuscant · · Score: 0

      We could make decoy trackers that would draw the poachers to a place so they can be easily arrested.

      Yes, we need lots more laws about what is illegal to do with radio. Making it illegal to track a radio signal is a really good idea.

  10. We had a similar problem with dolphins by Solandri · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To allow our AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles - robot submarines) to navigate underwater, we'd deploy a network of underwater navigation beacons. Each beacon would ping (at a different frequency) when they heard a certain acoustic code from our sub. Based how long it took for the sub to receive each response ping and the locations of the beacons, it could determine its position underwater. The beacons were housed in glass spheres anchored underwater. Since it was a pain to recover them, they held enough batteries to power them for 6-12 months of operations.

    So one year we deployed the beacons and ran our AUV ops for a week. We'd then go back to our lab to analyze the data for the rest of the month. Since we were going to be back in the water in a month, we left the beacons. We came back the following month, sent out a test signal to make sure the beacons would respond and.... nothing. We sent down divers to recover the beacons and all their batteries were dead. We assumed someone had programmed the charging power supply wrong so they hadn't gotten a full charge. So we recharged them, re-deployed the beacons, and ran our ops.

    The following month, same thing. Sent a test signal and all the beacons were dead again. This was a real head scratcher. Eventually we figured out what was going on. Dolphins had heard the coded signal the AUV transmitted. They thought it was pretty cool that our beacons would respond back with a ping. So while we were away, they were having fun whistling the coded signal over and over making the beacons ping until the batteries were dead.

  11. Honeypots by Neuronwelder · · Score: 2

    So who is going to come up with honeypot strategy to lure the poachers?

  12. Re:Good. by Plus1Entropy · · Score: 1

    If you live in modern society and you are stupid enough to be eaten by a wolf or a bear, then I'm glad to see you removed from the gene pool.

    --
    Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
  13. Re:Good. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    As far as the rest of the country is concerned, we "tamed the west" and we meant it.

    You fucked up. If you had just left the fucking Bison alone, we could have had free meat. Instead, you had to put up fences.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  14. I'm confused by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was my impression that poachers have been exploiting such tracking for more than forty years.

  15. Re:Good. by dunkelfalke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And the rednecks are still surprised that others consider them stupid. Wolves are generally not a danger to people. There are exceptions, but they are so rare that they are borderline apocryphal. I blame red riding hood for the notion that wolves consider humans prey. Bears, on the other hand, are indeed dangerous but normally tend to avoid humans, so the probability to be killed by a lightning strike is higher.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
  16. If you aren't vegan, you can't complain... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...about any of this. Just saying. 3,000 animals will live lives of torture and be killed in the most horrible ways you can imagine, because you aren't vegan. That is the one thing you CAN do something about. Supply and demand. Stop paying and it will no longer happen - you an literally save 3,000 animals from being born into suffering.

    Does the article suggest going vegan? How many vegans are animal poachers? How many vegans use bear bile, or rhino horn, or tiger penis, or eat pangolins, etc.etc.

  17. cryptographic time/frequency/waveform by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It would not be too difficult to keep the transmissions private by using a secret pseudo-random sequence of times, frequencies and waveforms. Then the unauthorized user must tune in to all frequencies at all times, decoding all waveforms. But the good guys can have specially programmed receivers which know the right times/frequencies/waveforms. If the waveforms seem a bit like random noise, so much the better. (This kind of time/frequency/waveform hopping can also be used by bad people who want to communicate without the good guys knowing.) If the date packets are very short, they will be like a random blip in the noise, impossible to tun into or get a direction fix on because the next one will be totally different.

  18. Re:easy for you to say by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

    If you like to play with your kids in the city park, live in the city. If you wanted to live in a Disneyland park (as opposed to a Disneyland resort) why did you move to the country?

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  19. Jerks and As*Holes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As*Holes. I wish we could track them and well...

  20. Re: so we aren't even modern society by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you have a jet-ski we are all hoping the guy in the canoe casting weighted hooks at you snags you and you rip your face off with all that jet thrust.

  21. RFID ink doesn't require a chip &? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    RFID can be applied to humans as well for the "cashless society" # of the beast 666 style https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufMWQkLQZAo/ so perhaps these poachers methods can be applied to save your ass one day folks (not that I agree w/ needless killing of animals, especially endangered ones (as I feel that animals are quite often BETTER PEOPLE than PEOPLE are - especially to one another)).

    IIRC, they already use this type of system (no chip) to track cattle via satellite monitoring (no chip required, just a RFID ink tattoo - 'branded by laserscan').

    * I don't get it - why would ANYONE head us into a doomsday prophecy for? Does it have benefits (good ones)?? Maybe - the bad ones FAR outweigh those & yes it frightens me & should YOU also,

    APK

    P.S.=> Once the 'powers that be' accomplish their goal of destroying the U.S. PetroDollar, it's going to be their REAL GOAL of TRACKING YOU & keeping you UNDER CONTROL (under their thumb, you get outta line, they cut off your "$") - I merely entertain the possibility of such a dystopian future - always plan ahead & looking @ the 'bright side' only = dumb imo & experience (hope for the best, plan for the worst & most of all be aware of such possibles)... apk

  22. Re:Good. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 1

    The grandparent might be referring to coyotes. They were once only rural but have returned all the way to the east coast and suburban areas which was not the case when I was a kid.

    Yes they are a threat and even wolves are a threat outside of suburbia to cattle and other livestock. Coyotes attack pets and even small children too

  23. In animals are people too news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mislabeled that post...

  24. Seems a bit extreme by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

    How about we just tag 'em and track 'em to make sure they're behaving?

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
  25. Easier.. by SuperDre · · Score: 1

    Just do like the poachers here in the Netherland did last night, just go to a zoo, kill the rhinoceros and saw off it's horn... So much easier than having to go into the wild..

  26. other predators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The city park has predators of the human variety, and Disneyland is horrid fakeness. Neither is as peaceful and relaxing as the great outdoors can be... that is, without the deadly beasts.

    Walking through the woods, enjoying the silence, is something wonderful. (if not silent, eliminate the problem)