Connected Collar Lets Your Cat Do the War-Driving 110
MojoKid (1002251) writes "Security researcher Gene Bransfield, with the help of his wife's grandmother's cat, decided to see how many neighborhood WiFi access points he could map and potentially compromise. With a collar loaded with a Spark chip, a Wi-Fi module, a GPS module, and a battery, Coco the cat helped Gene identify Wi-Fi networks around the neighborhood and then reported back. The goal here is obvious: Discover all of the unsecured, or at least poorly-secured, wireless access points around the neighborhood. During his journey, Coco identified dozens of Wi-Fi networks, with four of them using easily-broken WEP security, and another four that had no security at all. Gene has dubbed his collar the "WarKitteh", and it cost him less than $100 to make. He admits that such a collar isn't a security threat, but more of a goofy hack. Of course, it could be used for shadier purposes." (Here's Wired's article on the connected cat-collar.)
Sorry, had to be asked (Score:5, Funny)
Re: War-diving? (Score:0, Funny)
"Hated" dipshit.
I initially thought that ... (Score:5, Funny)
... this was the best argument that cats are smarter than dogs. You don't exactly see dogs running around neighbourhoods to hack networks after all.
Then I realized that this was just another script-kitty.
Re:War-diving? (Score:0, Funny)
"Hate" dipshit.
Re: Sorry, had to be asked (Score:2, Funny)
they didnt mention denial of service dog. he was much better.
Re:Shades of the 1960's CIA "Acoustic kitty" (Score:5, Funny)
That's what they want you to think. The truth is that there is now an entire army of CIA spy cats.
You must not be a cat owner. The real truth, the truth they don't want anyone to know, is that the CIA, NSA, FBI, KGB, IRS, and especially the DMV, are entirely run by cats. That acoustic cat was actually a senior agent, trusted with testing a next gen prototype. He was not "run over by a car", he was assassinated by an enemy agent. That thing cats do in the middle of the night, where they charge around the house as if an axe murderer were on a spree? That is spy versus spy warfare, your cat saved your life. There's a war going on, a war most of us never see, and it rages under your bed, on your kitchen counters, even on top of your refrigerator.
The NSA isn't so much monitoring your email to see what dirty emails you send each other, they're looking for coded messages from field agents as they "walk across the keyboard". They no longer need acoustic agents, the agents are simply embedded everywhere, and they are always watching. It sounds as if this Snowden person has altered the communications flow, necessitating another field trial of a more "cat in the middle" interception plan. War kitteh is a hero.
WarKitteh? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Sorry, had to be asked (Score:5, Funny)
There's no pussyfooting around the security implications. This, more than ever, proves that security is a cat-and-mouse game. The script kitties will be all over this -- they'll milk it for all it's worth.