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.

Comments

Poachers should be tortured when caught

[Anonymous Coward]

Preferably in a town square.

This might stop poachers.

Re:Poachers should be tortured when caught

[Maavin]

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...

you don't have to 'hack' the system

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

decoy trackers

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Good.

[dunkelfalke]

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.