DARPA-Funded Hacker's Tiny $50 Spy Computer Hides In Offices, Drops From Drones

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http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/01/27/darpa-funded-hackers=
-tiny-50-spy-computer-hides-in-offices-drops-from-drones/

By Andy Greenberg
Forbes
1/27/2012

Even more embarrassing than a student discovering your GPS tracking=20
device on his car, as the FBI found out last year, is having to ask him=20
to give the expensive piece of equipment back.

So security researcher Brendan O=E2=80=99Connor is trying a different app=
roach=20
to spy hardware: building a sensor-equipped surveillance-capable=20
computer that=E2=80=99s so cheap it can be sacrificed after one use, with=
=20
off-the-shelf parts that anyone can buy and assemble for less than fifty=20
dollars.

At the Shmoocon security conference Friday in Washington D.C., O=E2=80=99=
Connor=20
plans to present the F-BOMB, or Falling or Ballistically-launched Object=20
that Makes Backdoors. Built from just the hardware in a=20
commercially-available PogoPlug mini-computer, a few tiny antennae,=20
eight gigabytes of flash memory and some 3D-printed plastic casing, the=20
F-BOMB serves as 3.5 by 4 by 1 inch spy computer. And O=E2=80=99Connor ha=
s=20
designed the cheap gadgets to dropped from a drone, plugged=20
inconspicuously into a wall socket, thrown over a barrier, or otherwise=20
put into irretrievable positions to quietly collect data and send it=20
back to the owner over any available Wifi network. With PogoPlugs=20
currently on sale at Amazon for $25, O=E2=80=99Connor built his prototype=
s with=20
gear that added up to just $46 each.

=E2=80=9CIf some target is surrounded by bad men with guns, you don=E2=80=
=99t want to=20
have to retrieve this, but you also don=E2=80=99t want to have to pay fou=
r or=20
five hundred dollars for every use,=E2=80=9D says O=E2=80=99Connor. =E2=80=
=9CThe idea is that=20
it=E2=80=99s as close to free as possible. So you can throw a bunch of th=
ese=20
sensors at a target and get away with losing a couple nodes in the=20
process.=E2=80=9D

[...]


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