Attacks network by homemade aircraft

US computer security experts have successfully built a drones that, according to them, hackers can easily design and use to attack mobile phone networks and the internet.

The frame of the aircraft costs about $ 300, available through the internet. A GSM radio will turn it into a mobile version of a mobile phone tower, a video camera to monitor the ground, while an internet connection from a USB device can be purchased at any any electronic store. The total cost of unmanned aircraft is about $ 3,800, according to two experts, Mike Tassey and Richard Perkins.

Close up of unmanned aerial vehicle (photo: AFP)

Using the components available on the market, they built a plane called WASP , which could become a rotary base station for cellular networks with a camera while in flight and The ability to perform packet sniffing over Wi-Fi at the same time. All parts are legally purchased and manufactured without requiring much technical complexity, they said.

In the future, hackers tend to perform network attacks in this form, according to speculation by two experts. They have built this unmanned aerial vehicle to prove that hackers can do it very easily.

Pretending to fly

Using a drones to attack a cell phone network will be easy when flying and broadcasting the same signal as a normal cell tower, two experts said. Most cell phones are designed to capture the strongest available signals. If the local 3G or 4G networks have weaker signal than broadcast from unmanned aircraft, the cell phone will default to GSM and may be tricked when tuned from the antenna of the unmanned aircraft, Use it as a base station.

In tests, Tassey and Perkins showed that the drones could then hear, record calls and transfer data over the internet.

This is not a bad thing at all. The experts say low-cost drones can also be used to find lost hikers, at a fraction of the cost of helicopters.