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posted by cmn32480 on Friday July 03 2015, @07:10AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-the-terrorists dept.

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."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @07:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @07:17PM (#204823)

    i think just "making the cable invisible" won't be enough.

    there's a movie were the hacker on the team disguises himself as a airplane traveller, sits at the airport waiting for his imaginary luggage and the hacks the metro-road network to cause some traffic chaos.

    also once upon a time there was "the hacker" that used mobile phones to access the internet to ... hack mobile phone companies.
    ip always changing, dunno who, dunno IMEI etc at the time.
    anyways, thanks to some other hacker(s) and SUN hardware : ) and copious traffic sniffing they found him, stuck him in prison and gave him a can of tuna.

    the problem is that nowadays android and windblows are so chatty and phone home tons of date in the background about the user under the guise of making the user experience more friendly that identifying the "hacker" is trivial.
    "the invisible cable" just makes locatin' the physical location a tad difficult.

    maybe i will get one of these so that when i should get in trouble (or get framed) i have possible denyability.
    maybe get some person on death-row to touchy handle it before installing it with gloves?
    maybe pre-death-row-inmate finger print it before sending it off to customer?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @11:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 03 2015, @11:15PM (#204878)

    You're on crack if you use Windows or Mac for "hacking" unless you're Carolyn Meinel, then you're just too happy to need drugs to hack.