Wireless

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

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

No matter how well prepared you are, there are times when you don't quite have to hand all the technology you really need.

Today, I find myself on a boat in just that situation and unable to get online with wi-fi or 2.5G for want of a better antenna. My mobile phone is showing one bar of 2.5G and one bar of wi-fi. My laptop isn't doing any better, and a data connection is proving impossible.

LightSquared may take legal action if it is denied permission to build its planned LTE network because of concerns over interference between that network and GPS, an executive said Monday.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has said it won't allow LightSquared to operate the LTE network unless it can prove the interference problems have been solved. Many vendors and users of GPS (Global Positioning System) equipment have lobbied the FCC to keep LightSquared from running its LTE network in its assigned spectrum, which is close to that used by GPS devices.

As long-term evolution (LTE) networks, such as Telstra's new 4G network, bring about super fast mobile broadband to consumers across the globe, they could also potentially open up smartphones, tablets and other devices to hacks that previously only concerned PC users, according to network vendor Alcatel-Lucent. Unlike existing networks, which are partially IP-based, LTE networks are all-IP networks.

Most people probably buy a Bluetooth headset for their cellphone without worrying too much about its security. There are just so many of these devices that it’s not unnatural to assume that any risks would be well publicized. But, Finnish company Codenomicon Defensics claims in a white paper entitled “Fuzzing Bluetooth” that there could be cause for concern:

On its European Public Policy Blog, Google has announced that it is to provide an option for wireless access point owners to opt-out from Google's location services. The location of private Wi-Fi systems is used by Google, and other operators, as one means to help estimate a phone user's location for the delivery of some services. However, many data protection authorities in Europe have objected to the practice and Google's move is in response to these objections.

MIT researchers have devised a protocol to flummox man-in-the-middle attacks against wireless networks. The all-software solution lets wireless radios automatically pair without the use of passwords and without relying on out-of-band techniques such as infrared or video channels.

Everett-based Fluke Networks adapted a troubleshooting product to help law enforcement officials fight crime.

A feature on iPhones and laptops allows users to detect WiFi networks in the area. Fluke Networks made a device, called the Aircheck WiFi Tester, that can focus in on any networks being used to handle child pornography. Detectives who have a lead on a child predator can use Aircheck to quickly locate the WiFi network used to handle child pornography.

Yesterday at Black Hat, two security researchers demonstrated how a radio-controlled model airplane outfitted with a computer and 4G connectivity could be used to create a nearly undetectable aerial hacking device that could perpetrate aerial attacks on targets otherwise unreachable by land.