The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it has developed a four-legged robot designed to jam the wireless transmissions of smart home devices. The robot was revealed at the 2024 Border Security Expo and is called NEO. It is built using the Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) and looks a lot like the Boston Dynamics Spot robot.
According to the transcript of the speech by DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) director Benjamine Huffman, acquired by 404 Media, NEO is equipped with an antenna array that is designed to overload home networks, thus disrupting devices that rely on Wi-Fi and other wireless communication protocols. It will thus likely be effective against a wide range of popular smart home devices that use wireless technologies for communications.
Right, can’t have records of illegal raids, theft or murder uploaded somewhere before they can destroy/confiscate them…
Stop using wireless security cameras. Burglers do this too. It doesn’t take a robot dog to carry around a jammer.
Ya cant jam an Ethernet cord
Looks like Ethernet cams are the answer after all.
Always have been. 🌎🔫
The lesson is always use Ethernet whenever you can, folks.
And if you can’t run Ethernet, even those power line Ethernet adapters are better then WiFi.
Just beware, if you’re in a place where you can only get DSL and coax or fiber are not available - Powerline does use the same frequencies as DSL and both the power cables and your landline are unshielded wires. So there will be cross talk and powerline can and probably will affect your DSL connection. Also depending on your cables and the powerline adapters you use, you may disturb radio stations and a wider area around your house.
you may disturb radio stations
Isn’t that illegal, as you’re basically radio jamming? Devices have that little FCC sticker saying it shouldn’t interfere with other devices. During my amateur radio license studying that was mentioned.
I’m curious about the privacy aspect; would someone be able to see my network by plugging in to the neighbors house, perhaps with some exploits involved?
Well, VDSL and VDSL2 use 138kHz to 12MHz and then 30-35.5MHz (according to the german Wikipedia - I couldn’t find that table in the English article.)
Powerline has several standards (same as above, couldn’t find that table in the English Wikipedia), but the frequency range starts at 2-4MHz and ends at 20-30MHz (with one standard using 30-68MHz).
For DSL, there’s not really a problem using these frequencies but powerline transmits at a higher power and intentionally uses cross talk as a feature. The byproduct is that now your power cables act as an antenna and the Powerline signal “leaks”.
Medium Frequency radio stations e.g. use the band from about 520kHz to 1.6MHz which correlates with Powerline and can be affected by it.Edit: Medium Frequency transmissions in general (300kHz - 3MHz) and High Frequency transmissions (3MHz - 30MHz) can be affected, but radio stations shouldn’t (~530kHz - 1.6MHz).And yes, if you’re transmitting “strong enough” over Powerline (depending on your adapter and how well your cables act as an antenna) one could recieve your signal and decode it. IIRC the signal is encrypted (somewhat like WiFi - the adapters need to be paired to talk to each other), but I don’t know much details about it.
Sounds like cops are getting sick of being shown during their raids on home camera systems.
That is terrifyingly true. Wired cameras all the way.
Might be time to hardwire my doorbell camera.
I keep forgetting to do this. I just upgraded my panel, time to pull another cable …
Yeah I’m glad you brought up the doorbell. Once the jammer dog is jamming, it’s impossible to ring most doorbells and choose the polite option. It’s 110% murderville from that point onwards.
Looks like Ethernet cams are the answer after all.
Now this is some watchdogs 2 shit
Now ppl just need to jam the controller/video frequencies it uses to counter it.
Disclaimer: don’t do this unless you want the FCC knocking on your door too
Or just shoot it.
Jokes on them, Uptime Kuma pings my doorbell cams every 5 seconds and starts the self-destruct sequence if they aren’t reachable.
Apart from the fact that I don’t believe you :) What would your self-destruct routine actually destroy?
Certainly not any evidence, as that would be illegal
It actually only checks every 30 seconds and sends an email if it fails for 3 minutes. But don’t tell the feds.
The antidote
the PhotosOfRealNature folder…and browsing history because they don’t deserve the memes
Police will do everything to hide their wrongdoing but they won’t obey the laws they claim to enforce.
ACAB
Make sure all your cameras are hard wired.
…. and display/video
D’Oh!
I always tried to prefer hard wiring where possible, so this shouldn’t block my cameras. However it just hit me reading this that all my displays are wireless. I’ll get the video but won’t be able to see it
Cool, so my hardwired cameras won’t be affected, and they’ll be announcing themselves with tons of suspicious radio activity. I’ll know exactly when to react to their arrival.
Copper mesh that’s strategically placed will defend against this.
wtf, I bet it would work equally well for thousands of dollars less if their jammer didn’t come with a robot dog.
activating the HVAC system to introduce chemicals into the environment and cause a fire or explosion
Someone’s been reading comic books and raiding the edibles again
