MODEL AIRCRAFT HACKS YOUR CELL PHONE!

REMOTE CONTROLED DRONE HACKS INTO YOUR  CELL PHONE

Richard Perkins and Mike Tasey both worked in information technology in the U. S. Airforce before decamping to carious cyber security consulting roles in and around the Department of Defense. But throughout their carriers they’ve always considered themselves hackers at heart, which is why they spent the last two years developing the ultimate mobile hacking device: a drone aircraft that can discretely break into WI-FI networks, emit jamming signals, and even pose as a cellphone tower to intercept communications from the ground.

Perkins and Tassey shared an interest in remotely piloted aircraft, and with their professional Surveilance platform. Known as Vespid (the Latin word for “wasp” a play on the acronym), is a modified surplus FQM-117B Army target drone. In place of the aircraft’s original radio equipment, Perkins and Tassey substituted compact components including a high-powered radio antenna for intercepting and broadcasting signals, a 32-gigabite ISB dongle to keep Vespid connected to a server on the ground. Two lithium-polymer batteries power the 76-inch-long drone, which can remain aloft for more than half an hour.

Although the aircraft has impressive spying abilities, Perkins and Tassey say that they don’t have designs on other people’s data. They showed Vespid at a security conference in Las Vegas in August to make a point: if they could construct a spy drone from legall, off-the-shelf components for a few thousand dollars, then despite its complexity, others could do the same—including those with nefarious motives.

You don’t suppose the CIA already has these?

Yet Vespid could have some helpful applications. As easily as it can steal data, it can also provide WI-FI connectivity and cellphone service in areas affected by natural disasters or hunt for cell signals in devastated areas, turning ordinary cellphones into search and rescue beacons.—CLAY DILLOW

·         Flight control An Arduino microcontroller-based “ArduPilot” platform handles the drone’s avionics.

·         Flier: To boost efficiency and reduce engine nose, Tassey and Perkins stripped out the drone’s nitro-methane engine and replaced it with a 2.5 horsepower electric motor. They added landing gear forged from hobbyist R/C aircraft components to cushion their electronics cargo.

·         Interceptor: The drone uses Ettus universal software radio peripheral, or USRP, which enables it to receive and transmit signals. Two six-cell, 22.2-volt lithium-polymer battery packs power it and the rest of the hardware. (You could probably pick this stuff up a Home Depot along with the drill motor to power the aircraft.)   Including a card-deck-size central computer running BackTrack 5, a tool kit for hacking wireless networks.

·         Eavesdropper: Vespid can “spool: a cell tower—it can trick phone into thinking that its USRP is a piece of network hardware so that the phones routs calls and texts through the drone. Vespid then connects the calls through a real cell tower, so the phone (and caller) never detects that is have been duped. That means Vespid can even intercept encrypted voice or text data and dump it to a server on the ground.

·         And, you think this is a free country? www.GuardDogbooks.com read THE FROG IS COOKED.