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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.
Preferably in a town square.
This might stop poachers.
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
There is in fact ZERO documented reports of this actually happening.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
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.
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.
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.
We could make decoy trackers that would draw the poachers to a place so they can be easily arrested.
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.
So who is going to come up with honeypot strategy to lure the poachers?
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
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.'"