ProxyHam was a device that would let you share internet over traditional radio frequencies, enabling a user to be miles from the actual internet connection. A good tool for anonymity. It was supposed to be featured at Def Con, but has suddenly been shut down. All devices have been destroyed, no details will be released, according to the twitter of Rhino Security, the company behind the device.
This is possibly a National Security Letter, but due to their nature it's pretty hard to get that confirmed.
So if patents were not a problem, and if the FCC wasn't a problem - as confirmed by Caudill himself, why was this tool forced out of the public's reach? We may never know.
[...] For the record, I asked Caudill about getting a NSL, Caudill would only answer, "No comment."
I'd like to know what the commenters think. Was this actually rubbish like the AnonaBox and is this their elegant way to bow out? Or was this actually a solution that worked, and hence got shut down? Considering the fact these dudes wanted to demonstrate it at Def Con, it appears pretty legitimate.
Original Submission
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UHF takes up the space between 400 and 700 megahertz on the wireless spectrum [Ed: Technically, it's defined as being from 300Mhz to 3Ghz]. [At these frequencies] its signals can carry for miles and more easily penetrate walls and trees than the higher frequencies used for most wireless routers. Despite this and the growing demand for wireless data, TV broadcasters continue to maintain preferential access to the UHF spectrum, even as the percentage of Americans relying on over-the-air signals for TV programming has begun to dip into the single digits in recent years.
The Federal Communications Commission allows for data to be transmitted over open UHF channels not claimed by a TV broadcaster, but urban areas where the need for more Wi-Fi options is greatest are also the least likely to have unclaimed UHF frequencies.
Knightly and Rice graduate student Xu Zhang designed a new solution to allow for transmitting wireless data over UHF channels during TV broadcasts over those same channels called WATCH (for "Wi-Fi in Active TV Channels") and were granted permission from the FCC to test it on the Rice campus last year. The basic idea behind the system is to actively monitor nearby TVs that are tuned into a local UHF video signal and to use advanced and efficient signal-canceling technology to send wireless data over the same channel without interference between the data and video transmissions.
Perhaps this is a candidate for open access to the Internet that this and other forums have been kicking around the past few years.
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @05:16AM
A normal person would have answered "no" if they hadn't received one, so they probably did.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Tuesday July 14 2015, @10:30AM
That's what they want you to think!
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 4, Informative) by _NSAKEY on Tuesday July 14 2015, @05:29AM
http://blog.erratasec.com/2015/07/proxyham-conspiracy-is-nonsense.html [erratasec.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @09:08AM
Figures you [wikipedia.org] would say that.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday July 14 2015, @02:54PM
In modern chickenshit America, it's also likely that somebody would see it lying around and freak the fuck out and call the FBI saying that they found an evil terrorist bomb.
Then SWAT and the bomb squad would blow it up in the streets for effect, then tell America that they just saved them from another terrorist threat and to be ever-vigilant against ISIS.
(Score: 1) by TheMessageNotTheMessenger on Tuesday July 14 2015, @04:16PM
You clearly illustrate the stupid part of the ProxyHam project. Does such a stupid idea warrant a national security letter though?
Hello! :D
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 14 2015, @08:53PM
Well considering this is modern chickenshit America you're speaking about, I would have to disagree.
All you need to do is camouflage it. Depending on location, just call it an Internet-O-Extender, The Facebook Everywhere(tm) Project, Netflix HomeBeam, Apple Neighborhood Watch, whatever.
I literally just watched a street full of people and cars ignore an epileptic person seizing in the intersection till I ran out of my car and got to him. I'm going with America is too stupid and oblivious to raise an alarm, especially if they believe it's actually part of the bread and circuses that entertain them.
Of course, were I to actually try and use one of these..... that's what breaking into the dmarc/electrical closet of a corporate building is for. As long as everything is labeled nice and neat, and the install is professionally labeled, just about every tech out there will ignore it. In many cases, the cablemodem/DSL/T1 circuits aren't even in the suites, but in the electrical closets, posing even less of a chance of detailed inspection.
PLENTY of places to hide these things, and plenty of things to make it look *like*. In all seriousness, I think you could install a few of these things that might never be found. Especially, if they're geared to crack into wireless networks around them, or use guest wireless services, or heck, even paid wireless hot-spot services.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday July 14 2015, @11:13PM
They're both too selfish and stupid to save a life when they have big important things to do like go fuck off on Facebook. Chances are somebody will eventually help the guy anyway, so who cares he ends up swallowing his own tongue -- the paramedics could just poke a hole in his trachea and he'll be fine...assuming he doesn't suffocate first.
We're finally seeing the results of Calhoun's mouse experiments manifest themselves in our own society.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:30PM
They claim a range of miles. I wonder if the FCC had something to say about spectrum/signal strength.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @07:59PM
No encryption over HAM radio frequencies.
While I can't remember the details, I believe 2.4/5.8 were explicit exemptions when the 802.11b predecessor protocols started becoming popular.
Given the transmisison power/range these devices touted and the fact that they were operating in ISM bands which AFAIK still have the HAM encryption restrictions in place, I assume the takedown happened on account of that, possibly through a non-FCC source (Like via a politely worded letter from the American HAM branch explaining what sort of hassle this little project was/would cause for them.)
I still can't believe 20 years on there are amateurs like this going to DefCon peddling half-baked shit for money. But then again that was at least half of what DefCon was the last time I visited. The rest was legitimate security research, but more often drunken douches trying to one up each other. Sounds kinda like a frat party, only for nerds.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday July 14 2015, @05:48AM
that hacker news thinks the talk was cancelled because the gadget isnt that interesting.
I would post a link but my cat has designs on my supper.
There are many ways to do something like this. I have often thought of something conceptually similar not for privacy but because I can only get dialup where I live, but less than a mile away are lots of wifi spots.
The security of this thing is questionable. Its not like its hard to find the source if a radio signal.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Immerman on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:43AM
>Its not like its hard to find the source if a radio signal.
Quite true - assuming the transmitter is actually transmitting. However, if you assume the relay transmits omniderectionally, then it will provide no hints as to your location beyond "within range", and so long as you don't activate your home transmitter (which is potentially tight-beam to minimize detection and tiangulation potential) while there's someone looking for you you should be safe.
I would imagine any truly nefarious applications of such a device would be restricted to brief single-shot applications where internet access is only needed for minutes or possibly hours, depending on the competence of the local authorities. Basically, brief enough that you can begin your activities, get detected, have the signal traced to the coffee shop or whatever, and have your transmitter shut down before the authorities arrive on-scene with radio detectors to track you down.
If you're hacking into strategic missile defense, that's probably not a whole lot of time. If you're doing something less urgent though, say downloading whistleblower files, or just covering your tracks in case someone takes offense somewhere down the line... well you might have months or years before someone decides to send men on the ground to trace you down. After all, until they perform a physical investigation you can mask your activities as if you were just another customer stopping in for coffee and wifi. If you have some sort of early-warnig system to detect a trace it would be even safer - as soon as you detect a trace, turn off your transmitter and you're gone. With sufficinet power and signal focus you could be anywhere. Thanks to Ham radio's long popularity most devices will even gracefully ignore the signal, so very little static, etc by which you could be retroactively traced.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:46PM
In the old days, before most of us here were born, the golden rule when you didn't want someone to know you were there was "Radio Silence". This is still true today, but sometimes that's impossible, which is why a lot of classified research goes into Low Probability of Interception (LPoI) or, applicable here, LPo Detection, which assumably relies on beam formation and ultra-wideband spread spectrum. I suppose this device could be doing something like that, but it's doubtful.
There's also the quick setup and takedown, as the parent mentioned, but this, too, may be unrealistic. As for the cops, the AFAIK the vast majority of police departments rely on gear they buy rather than making it themselves, so this isn't unplausable; OTOH, parent assumes foreign signals in the ham bands will be ignored, which is absolutely NOT correct.
Finally, while the 33cm band (902-928 MHz) is unlicensed at low power, there are an increasing number of high power devices appearing thanks to throwing money at the FCC and Congress: the worst of them are arguably smart meters for utility power metering, because they are becoming everywhere and impossible to avoid in many urban and even some suburban and rural areas.
Top that with most ham bands above 1 GHz being shared with military, astronomy, and more, and you could step on toes that will definitely resent it. In particular, the 23cm (1240-1300 MHz here in Region-2) is used by radars, including the Air Route Surveillance Radars (see Wikipedia) that surround the US borders looking for planes that don't have their squawkers on, among others; the lower part of this band is now a GNSS band as well and will be used by Beidou/Compass and Galileo, and possibly by future GLONASS as well, and has been restricted from use by hams already in parts of Europe.
Of course, if they're using Ubiquiti or other equipment and trying to sell it as their own, I could see that causing a lawyer visit as well...
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:07AM
Hipsters are communists. Your Internet connection that you pay for doesn't belong to you, it belongs to hipsters. If you don't offer free Internet to your neighbors, hipsters will break into your fucking house and plant ProxyHams in your house. You will give free Internet to all hipsters whether you want to or not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:40AM
Breaking and entering = leaving a device nearby? Furthermore, if someone does break and enter, that's their fault and not the fault of the device.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by jasassin on Tuesday July 14 2015, @07:12AM
I only remember reading about this from the previous article.
If you're going to make a device like this (or anything questionable) release the schematics and part numbers and detailed instructions on how to create the device. You should be smart enough to know the NSA isn't going to let that shit fly. Post it on Usenet, make a torrent for it etc.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:10PM
What schematics? They just bought it. [ubnt.com]
You can too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @11:58AM
---
All your bees are belong to us!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @12:41PM
"Traditional Frequencies" dont give it any advantages over WiFi as far as security goes.
How is it any better than a wifi extender ?
(Score: 2, Funny) by deadstick on Tuesday July 14 2015, @01:11PM
What is the traditional frequency, Kenneth?
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday July 14 2015, @09:26PM
How is it any better than a wifi extender ?
enabling a user to be miles from the actual internet connection
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @02:03PM
Why not move to a country that has freedom instead of the freedom_until_it_becomes_inconvenient U.S?
And why is it not clear to the U.S that there are places other than the U.S inhabited by smart people?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Tuesday July 14 2015, @02:42PM
The goal was to get smart people not in the US to permanently move to the US. I think the government and industry became confused and are now getting that backwards. Entertainment has stolen the idea though and buys its sports players now.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @03:21PM
Why not move to a country that has freedom instead of the freedom_until_it_becomes_inconvenient U.S?
And that place would be where?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @06:14PM
Exactly - all countries are doing the same thing these days. I've been thinking of this for a while and I can't come up with a single place that offers me:
1 - English language (my brain can't handle other languages even though I was initially raised in a foreign language - no I can't explain that)
2 - Meaningful freedoms and not just the illusion of freedom.
When they say America is the world leader, they mean everyone else gives up trying to do better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @11:59PM
what about Iceland?
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Wednesday July 29 2015, @03:53PM
Iceland is like a village. Have you ever lived in a village? They can say they have whatever they want but the village wins. Good and bad.
There's more: Iceland is a village filled with invisible elves/fairies, I'm only gently poking fun at them: don't mind :)
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 15 2015, @04:07AM
Where? Name me some places that aren't also up-and-coming police states and also aren't populated by morons. I want to gtfo of this shithole before its too late, but every other country is just as bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 14 2015, @03:00PM
Using Ham Radio equipment. www.arrl.org/internet-ham-radio