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In the game of anonymity-versus-surveillance online, the discovery of the user's IP address usually means game over. But if Ben Caudill has his way, a network snoop who successfully hunts a user through layers of proxy connections to a final IP address would be met with a dead end—while the anonymous user remains safe at home more than a mile away.
At the upcoming DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas next month, Caudill plans to unveil ProxyHam, a "hardware proxy" designed to use a radio connection to add a physical layer of obfuscation to an internet user's location. His open-source device, which he built for $200, connects to Wi-Fi and relays a user's Internet connection over a 900 megaherz radio connection to their faraway computer, with a range of between one and 2.5 miles depending on interference from the landscape and buildings. That means even if investigators fully trace the user's internet connection, they'll find only the ProxyHam box the person planted in a remote library, cafe, or other public place—and not their actual location.
Caudill, a researcher for the security consultancy Rhino Labs, compares his tool to typical tactics to hide the source of an Internet connection, like using a neighbor's Wi-Fi, or working from a coffee shop instead of home. But "the problem with Wi-Fi as a protocol is that you can't get the range you need. If the FBI kicks down the door, it may not be my door, but it'll be so close they can hear me breathe," says Caudill. "[ProxyHam] gives you all the benefits of being able to be at a Starbucks or some other remote location, but without physically being there."
Original Submission
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @11:20AM
i was thinking remove all the serial numbers from the device before using it...
but the chips have id's inside and whatnot. also the transmitter itself can probably be indentified uniquely cos its so cheap and the whole thing is unshielded?
Do correct me if i'm wrong.
so first one has to jump through hoops to order the damn thing anonymously enough, and then its a throw away device that costs 200$...
i guess one could modify it to go spread spectrum and use an external encryption device of some sort... but _effort_ and essentially meaningless against non-retarded opponents?
the old school tripwire, with two modems connected together end to end, in some random equipment closet and rigged in such a way that opening the door shorts the modems power supply... would be cheaper and just as effective. AND SLOWWWW.
i can see the use of this fancy device for times when you need more bandwidth then modem tripwire thingy can provide... but unlike old modems, possession of such a machine is a tad suspicious.
personally, id probably rig something with a gprs uplink, from old phones bought with cash and prepaid sim cards instead.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday July 03 2015, @06:29PM
The retailer won't likely bother to note the ID numbers when you buy the hardware, especially if you buy it from ebay. There's not much suspicious about 900MHz network equipment. It's frequently used for linking up two buildings and such using a directional antenna.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @10:48PM
If you are buying something off the shelf instead of rolling your own for the task at hand then it will be targeted. We can't have a million people with these boxes all over the place. We are trying to run dragnet surveillance on everyone at once. A new law will be passed and then these will be shutdown and targeted. It almost seems deliberate. Couldn't they have just dropped the instructions online and bought shares in some SoC manufacturer or Raspberry Pi clone distributor ? To do this on their own screams malice.