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from the a-sufficiently-encrypted-signal-is-indistinguishable-from-static dept.
"As a growing number of web users have become more security-conscious, there's been an explosion of VPNs and encryption tools and other security services for the Internet. But what about a device that lets you bypass the Internet entirely? That's the goal of RATS,[1] the Radio Transceiver System, an open source communication tool for the security-obsessed and/or the Internet-bereft."
"The RATS is simple: it's a small antenna that connects to computers by USB and lets them send encrypted messages and file transfers directly, via radio transmission. There are two obvious advantages to this: firstly, it doesn't rely on any network being up or even the power staying on — as long as your laptop has some batteries, you can send and receive — and secondly, it's a level of security and privacy that trumps most of what you can do on-line. Apart from being entirely separated from the Internet, it employs AES-256 encryption with a randomized salt so even the same message sent repeatedly will produce completely different encrypted data every time.
The range of the RATS antenna is about a kilometer in a city, but it can also be connected to superior antennas and, in areas with no obstacles, achieve ranges above 5km. Obviously this means it isn't suited to everything, but alongside the Internet it could be extremely powerful for certain local applications in urban neighborhoods, workplaces, and other situations where we normally use the robust global Internet just to send short messages to people within walking distance. But perhaps more than anything it could be a boon for people living under governments that censor and monitor on-line communications, allowing local groups to coordinate without so much as touching the compromised networks."
- https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20151031/07410132682/awesome-stuff-Internet-who-needs-it.shtml
(Archived) https://archive.is/XQxJm
[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1688986732/rats-chat-and-send-files-without-Internet/description
(Archived) https://archive.is/ly2mt
(Score: 5, Insightful) by draconx on Monday November 09 2015, @03:14PM
This isn't going to fly.
According to the kickstarter page, this machine transmits at 420MHz~452MHz, which is allocated for amateur radio use. That might be OK (if all users are ham operators), but encryption is generally prohibited on amateur radio bands. This device will not receive certification.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @03:19PM
The ham band only goes to 450
http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/450_mhz.html [jneuhaus.com]
You're going to be stomping on broadcast auxiliary and commercial above that
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @06:38PM
They used to, maybe still do, use ham radio for PC networking.
(Score: 1) by rufty on Monday November 09 2015, @09:20PM
The ham radio tcp/ip network. http://www.ampr.org [ampr.org] And for broadband, http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/just-starting-read-this.html [broadband-hamnet.org]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 09 2015, @03:38PM
The FCC might even pass it if it was provided for testing but the creator of the hardware never will. Though that doesn't mater because ham radio operators are allowed to operate non-certified equipment though they are responsible for any interference they cause and there are regulations on what can be output. It is correct that crypto (or any obfuscation at all) is not allowed on the ham radio frequencies.
This thing isn't a ham radio gizmo or a gizmo for radio lovers or hobbyists. Unfortunately the average person probably won't operate it properly and since it is not certified just using it at all is illegal, even if it is in the right frequencies.
The worst part is the interference will probably effect the hardcore radio nerds the worst: people doing weak signal work on the 70cm (~450mhz) band. They are doing stuff like morse code over UHF, talking to stuff in space, and bouncing signals off the moon.
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday November 09 2015, @04:41PM
Some google terms to search with wikipedia links from least specific to most specific:
So here's the general concept of what we're talking about, or what the legal and suits call this stuff:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Range_Devices [wikipedia.org]
It lists LPD433 as one of the hundred or so utility frequency bands. I own some LPD 433 stuff including a decent wireless weather sensor setup and some other stuff. Frankly the higher freq xbee stuff works better, oh well. Probably the kickstarter device is designed to use LPD433 officially or designed to use parts intended by the mfgr for LPD433. LPD does have the virtue of being a mostly world wide allocation, mostly, so you can build some corporate thing like a car keyless entry system and it'll be legal in most of the world more or less plus or minus individual national certifications blah blah weasel words. There's lots of LPD433 stuff like breakout boards for bare radios that don't market themselves as LPD433 although obviously they are. There's tons of cheap LPD433 stuff out there like breakout boards. You can read more about LPD433 at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPD433 [wikipedia.org]
For an example of the software stack you can pile onto a LPD433 system, take a look at DASH7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DASH7 [wikipedia.org]
DASH7 is corporate as all hell (aka if you have to ask the price for a dev kit, you simply can not afford it) and there's only like one hacker level dev kit from the UK for 140 brit-bucks which I suspect with shipping and taxes would be a solid 200 american-bucks. I guess you'd need two. I'd like to be proven wrong about this and be told off because lady ada's got an arduino shield implementing it for $4.95 shipped but I think it unlikely. Boy oh boy would it be awesome to be proven wrong and have cheap DASH7 stuff on my workbench. The feature list is awesome, I could have a lot of fun just Fing around with it. The kickstarter smells like it was inspired by DASH7 but they just had to NIH and do it slightly incompatibly, that's usually a total noob move which is scary. I have no real experience on DASH7 although I've screwed around with close cousins of that stuff.
At about $40 its a good deal cheaper, although less capable smelling, and higher level, than a yardstick one. Note that you can buy a genuine shipping yardstick one today and its dev kit and sample source code people have Fed around with and it actually works, and there's a big difference between that and I plan to sell something for $40 on kickstarter. I've been considering buying two yardstick one's and I wonder if anyone here has any comment beyond the obvious that I have too much spare time on my hands (ironically, ... no I don't) I guess that's one way to force me to use python LOL, I always thought that would take handcuffs and a whip, but here I am almost volunteering to do it just to mess with a RF dev board. Anyway...
A DASH7 gives you the whole OSI stack, more or less, up to layer 5 or higher IIRC. A yardstick one is a pure OSI level 1 device. Something like a xbee is more or less layers 1 and 2 and sort of a weak layer 3. The kickstarter vapor hardware is difficult to define given a couple pix of a rocket and little technical detail but looks very top to bottom so OSI 1-7 I guess.