Battery-Powered Transmitter Could Crash A City's 4G Network

DavidGilbert99 writes "With a £400 transmitter, a laptop and a little knowledge you could bring down an entire city's high-speed 4G network. This information comes from research carried out in the U.S. into the possibility of using LTE networks as the basis for a next-generation emergency response communications system. Jeff Reed, director of the wireless research group at Virginia Tech, along with research assistant Marc Lichtman, described the vulnerabilities to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which advises the White House on telecom and information policy. 'If LTE technology is to be used for the air interface of the public safety network, then we should consider the types of jamming attacks that could occur five or ten years from now (PDF). It is very possible for radio jamming to accompany a terrorist attack, for the purpose of preventing communications and increasing destruction,' Reed said."

This already exists in the wild

[Anonymous Coward]

AT+T has apparently been using this for months, in almost every major city

Invasion!

[jdkc4d]

A communications disruption can only mean one thing...

Re:Police Box

[Jason Levine]

But would those police boxes be bigger on the inside?

Re:Invasion!

[wonkey_monkey]

There's another shitty movie on the way and Disney don't want word of mouth spreading?

Re:This already exists in the wild

[game kid]

Thank you for your concern. At at&t(R), our commitment(tm) to rebuilding the nation's largest 4G network this year with your input [slashdot.org] has not wavered. However, our cozy government relationship requires us to install multiple backdoors [wikipedia.org], electronic and otherwise, and our Security budget was beginning to cut into our Invite Government Representatives Into Boardroom For Lobbying And Slash Or Trophywife Swapping budget.

As such, we have decided to retain the mandatory backdoors but leave them open to these minor vulnerabilities. The occasional permanent loss of an antenna, your Facebook account's integrity, or that one guy in Customer Service who decides to blow a whistle on us does not preclude your required payment of the 2012 Nation's Largest 4G Network Improvements Fee, or the upcoming 2013 Nation's Largest 4G Network Improvements Fee (which we hereby announce in this sentence, as double the 2012 version in all cases), even though both would be entirely too small to buy such high-value targets and high-class lays in such high volume.

Thank you again for choosing at&t(R), now with the nation's tallest paperweights. Like us on Facebook [facebook.com], follow us on Twitter [twitter.com], or let us track you to your house through any other method imaginable [att.com].