Warspying in San Francisco

hak_fan writes "SecurityFocus has a story on a group of radio hobbiests in San Francisco who occasionally go out warspying for wireless cameras in the 2.4GHz band, using some customized equipment. Their latest expedition turned up some interesting finds."

Ugh.

It's stories like this that make me never want to go naked on webcam ever ever again.

Not that you slashdotters would want to know such a thing.

Re:Ugh.

This [ebay.com] kind doesn't count!

Re:Ugh.

You sir, have destroyed a peice of my faith in humanity that I was unaware that I had. This revelation is wrong on so many levels. I weep for the humanity of it all.

Re:Ugh.

The risk of seeing naked slashdotters makes me never want to go warspying.

Re:Ugh.

You mean like this guy [139.78.10.151]? And no, it's not goatse or tubgirl, although possibly just as disturbing because the guy is an idiot!

Re:Ugh.

See, now, I'd go in the other direction. Let's say I found an office broadcasting with an X10 camera that was monitoring an empty executives's office.

I'd grab some footage, go home, set up my place to look the same way, invite some interesting people over, do some interesting things, and then go back to outside the office, and broadcast MY signal at 10 times the power, overriding the original one and have my image be the one that gets recorded.

I'd know it works when I read about it in the papers the next day...

Interesting.

The most fascinating part of this article to me - was the fact that it's NOT a violation of the wire tap act. It seems video isn't considered snooping. Talk about technology out pacing legislation. I wonder how long before we have one of those sites devoted to "hidden camera" porn? Oh, wait...

Re:Interesting.

Actually it's been covered in the media. There is one story of a man who setup video cameras all over the house and then sold it. The attic was accessible from the outside, so he'd climb up and swap the tapes in a VCR. There wasn't any sound only video so the most he could be charged with is stealing electricity

Re:Interesting.

Umm, that was just a Law & Order on the other night. Law & Order != Real Life. Step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air dude.

Re:Or the fact

I should hope not. I carry this with me every day [kenwood.net]. It receives 100KHz to 1.3GHz, and can monitor nearly all analog voice modes. I doubt that this would be illegal in any state, and if it was, the ARRL would be all over them. An amateur radio operator is licensed by the feds. This trumps any state law. IANAL, and this is a gross simplification of the facts, but legal precedents have been set as far as having amateur radio tranceivers in a vehicle.

Re:Interesting.

It really has very little to do with legistlative sloth. The problem with legislating against this sort of thing is that its so tangled up in the issue of surveillance cameras. If you make videotaping an unknowing or unwilling person in a "public place" illegal, all surveillance cameras are then illegal. The problem is that drawing the line between useful surveillance and spying is so difficult. In this case, the transmissions being intercepted are not encrypted or even hidden. No attempt to keep them private has been made, and the owners/operators have no expectation of privacy. IANAL, but I can't see any way to extend the laws to cover this without being draconian. One other point: voyeur-type hidden cameras are usually beaten in civil court if the voyeur charges money for the video; it may be legal to spy on others without their permission, but selling it is usually a no-no.

Re:Interesting.

IANAL It wouldn't be illegal to receive this stuff no matter what the format. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy for transmissions in this band (it is not even intended for communications use). One really cool thing about this band is that no license is required to operate in the band and there are tons of perfectly good 500 to 1000 watt 2.4 MHz magnetrons with power supplies discarded every year -- free for the taking from dumpsters and the sides of residential streets. You can even buy a new 2.4 MHz magnetron with power supply for almost nothing.

Interesting Finds?

If they found some interesting finds, they left them out of the article. They found exactally what you would think they would find... cameras pointed at places in offices... not the hot lesbian orgy that you would hope for. Besides, isnt this a dupe?

Re:Maybe no lesbian orgies, but

With a little detective work, MWD will eventually discover that the signal is a directional transmission from the camera to a local TV station that features the feed on its website and in its nightly newscast.

So really the trick is to override their feed during the nightly news with more provocative content. It might be amusing to be real subtle about it, such as periodically putting footage from the wrong season or another time of day, CGI-ing the skyline (burning buildings, missing buildings, buildings that aren't really there, etc), using a different city skyline, etc. Just putting the goatse guy on would be a little less interesting.

Ideally you'd have a reachable PC generating the video, with the ability to remotely switch between the real camera's feed and your feed to keep 'em guessing.

All the more ironic that "The Conversation" was filmed in SF.

"hobbiests"?

I didn't know the letter 'y' was taking a break today.

Where, oh where have all the *hobbyists* gone?

-Cyc

Re:"hobbiests"?

Yeah, the letter
"Y"
was off today, making a suprise appearance on sesame street.

So look out if the number "12" is missing from any posts today too.

Steven V.

Hmmmm

From the ./ blurb

Their latest expedition turned up some interesting finds.

and from the story

But just what are the video sniffers picking up? If the San Francisco expedition late last week is any indication, the answer is, not all that much.

Methinks the reality high-tech peeping tom world is probably quite a bit less sexy than some people's fantasies of it....

Dear Slashdot...

I never thought this would happen to me. I was warspying around Clevland and found myself in a low-rent part of town. I didn't want to stop for long, but I glanced at my equipment while stopped at a red light and saw the most beautiful girl in the world. She must have forgotten to turn off the camera, because the things she was doing.... Well, let's just say it was even more exciting than the goats.cx guy, or the thought of Natalie Portman with hot grits down her pants. I went right up to her place, and secured that camera for her by setting up a linux firewall. But the really good part is, I put in a backdoor for myself!

Re:Dear Slashdot...

Letter back from Penthouse editors:

In the future, could you please not reference "goats.cx" and "put in a backdoor for myself" in the same paragraph? We are now busy trying to poke out our inner eyes.

Broadcast privacy

When you broadcast something, you shouldn't expect it to remain private.

If you want it to remain private, do something.
Encrypt it, or don't send it out to everybody.

Re:Broadcast privacy

When you broadcast something, you shouldn't expect it to remain private. If you want it to remain private, do something. Encrypt it, or don't send it out to everybody.

Yep. That used to be they way it was for all radio broadcasts. It was legal to build a reciever that could recieve anything (DC to daylight), and if you didn't want people listening, you had to encrypt/obfuscate the data.

Then, some buttmunch decided that cellphones should transmit an unencrypted, analog signal, receiveable by any radioshack scanner. Instead of realizing that someone made a big mistake, the FCC just banned scanners that could receive cell frequencies.

Of, course, it's still trivial to recieve cell frequencies, but now it's "illegal". And now that everyone is switching to digial anyways, the law is still in place and the precendent has been set. Why bother to design things properly when you can just buy a law?

interesting finds alright...

Their latest expedition turned up some interesting finds.

From the article:

A few other cameras pop up, but nothing exciting -- until the financial district, where on the same block as the office cam, MWD's receiver picks up the very freeway camera that marked the start of the expedition. The camera is more than two miles away, while most wireless video cameras have trouble reaching the curb. The appearance of the signal so far from its source energizes the team. "That's definitely the catch of the night there," says MWD.

So the "catch of the night" is a freeway camera. Woo-hoo! Oh well, at least now I know there are bigger dorks than myself.

Social stigma

"The problem is, if the cops take an interest in you while you're doing something like this, the only way to get out of the situation is to admit that you're a dork," says MWD. "I'd almost rather be taken back to the station."

This is why we're losing jobs to India. Indians don't have to worry about looking like dorks because they're interested in science.

I warspied the article .......

and found nothing of interest.

Wireless Camera Detectors?

Anyone know if the wireless camera detectors they have at Radio Shack (still carry?) work? They were a small cigarette ligher sized detector. Didn't seem to me that it would work all that well...

JOhn

I call movie rights!

This sounds like a good plot starter for a political thriller.

A college student goes out to look at wireless cameras and witnesses a murder, which is later ruled a suicide by the coroner's office in a massive political coverup. He has the murder recorded on the hard drive of his notebook computer, and shortly after he hands a CD he burned with an MPEG of the murder over to his uncle, a police detective, his uncle is then found dead, another "suicide." Then the kid realizes they'll be coming after him next, and a merry chase ensues.

Has this already been done?

Re:I call movie rights!

But my movie will have a talking pie.

Quote of the Day

This has got to be the quote of the day:

The problem is, if the cops take an interest in you while you're doing something like this, the only way to get out of the situation is to admit that you're a dork," says MWD. "I'd almost rather be taken back to the station."

Re:Quote of the Day

I have a simular situation. "Honey, are you surfing slashdot again?" "Uh, no... I'm just downloading porn!"

WMD?

"His satisfaction at the discovery hints at the real nature of warspying: at least for WMD, the appeal isn't voyeuristic at all -- it's pure geek."

He starts off as Massive White Dude (MWD) and ends up as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Interesting... Terrorist.

Massive White Dude?

I don't know what's funnier -- the fact that the warspying guy's name was "Massive White Dude" (or "MWD" for short), or the fact that the reporter misspelled it as "WMD" in the second to last paragraph...

Uh huh...

Their latest expedition turned up some interesting finds.

... After which they started their own porn site.

War prefix now means roaming?

Wardialing was coined after Matthew Broderick did that activity in the 1983 movie War Games. It was a little bit clever to mutate that into wardriving, but that took the prefix right up to the edge of Fonzie's ramp.

The hairs on the back of my neck....

... just stood up all at once. The worst thing was that out of all my dvds, the one at the top of the pile was Enemy Of The State. Great film, although this story just make you wonder how many electronic eyes are watching you....

Uhm

But MWD doesn't relish trying to explain that to the San Francisco Police Department. Even when he's not warviewing, he keeps a police scanner running in his car, to "keep an ear on the pulse on the city," and tonight it provides some comfort by not squawking out calls about strange men carrying alien-looking ray gun equipment, or driving slowly and suspiciously though the city's varied neighborhoods in an ominous black '64 Volvo.
isn't it highly illegal to have a police radio scanner in a moving vehicle? I thought it was only legal to posess them if it was in a fixed location like your living room

*oops*

Legal for licensed amateur radio operators

isn't it highly illegal to have a police radio scanner in a moving vehicle? I thought it was only legal to posess them if it was in a fixed location like your living room

It depends on the state. However "in 1993 the FCC preempted all restrictive state and local laws and ruled (FCC PR 91-36 [arrl.org]) that it is legal for licensed amateur radio operators, who have a copy of their FCC license in their possession, to operate - anywhere in the USA - an amateur radio transceiver capable of receiving police and other emergency services frequencies in their vehicle." -- http://www.rarchams.org/scanlaw.htm [rarchams.org]

same as baby monitors

This is exactly what happens with your typicall baby monitor. People dont realize they are broadcasting their life to all their neighbors.
In fact thats what happened to me, i bought a monitor, but its useless, since all the channels are being used by my neighbors.

At least I have something to do if I'm ever bored.
Its like a baby crying radio channel :)

...turned up some interesting finds?

Where were these "finds" in the article? The office? The store security camera? I didn't see any particularly interesting

Most bang for the buck

Unless you are going to build your own hack it seems that for the less technically inclined of us cash will be king. To get in the game the article suggests the two best options. Any feedback on which one gives the most bang for the buck?

ACN53292
http://www.actiontvusa.com/ACN53292.ht ml

and the

Icom IC-R3
http://www.texastowers.com/icr3.htm

"warviewing"?

MWD first went warspying (he prefers the neutral term "warviewing")

What the hell is this crap? It's NOT neutral. I can see it now...

Reporter: "So Mr. Car Thief..."
Thief: "Please. I prefer the term Vehicle Posession Transferal Agent".

You ARE spying. You're looking where you shouldn't; that's spying, just like eavesdropping on 802.11b is spying; you know your victims are probably not expecting you to be looking, and you know it's wrong. If your neighbor has a 8-foot high shrub, and you stick your head through it to see what's going on in his yard, that's considered intrusive by most of the world unless you know 'em pretty well. It's not considered "viewing". If you put a mirror over the top of the stall in the bathroom to look at the guy next to you, that's spying. Not "viewing".

Why do I get the image of Comic Book Guy reading about MWD? Even the "please, call me..." crap is the same.

Re:"warviewing"?

It is *not* spying. In both your bathroom example and neighbor-shrub example, the bathroom wall and shrub are erected to prevent viewing; thus, circumventing that could be 'spying'. Walking or driving around picking up unencrypted, broadcasted video signals is not circumventing anything. If they had been doing decryption, then it could be spying; the way it is, they're merely sightseeing. Don't want people admiring the architecture of your house, or your landscaping skills? Erect a wall/shrubbery. Don't want people viewing your nanny-cam? Encrypt the signal. Otherwise, you're putting that signal out there for sightseers.

I have an X-10 camera

I got one of the first-generation X-10 cameras free in a promotion a few years back. I hooked it up and played around with it for awhile, and then started wondering what was to prevent someone with the same receiver from intercepting my signal. With that in mind I put the gear back in the box and haven't touched it since. Looks like I made the right move.

under the hot lights

"The problem is, if the cops take an interest in you while you're doing something like this, the only way to get out of the situation is to admit that you're a dork," says MWD. "I'd almost rather be taken back to the station."

Wow, imagine the interrogation this guy would get:

Cop: What's your name, son?
MWD: Massive White Dude.
Cop: I see that, but what's your name? And what's with this wire and little television?
MWD: It's, uhh... top secret, government stuff. I need to speak with Special Agent Dana Scully. It's a matter of national security!
Cop: Dana Scully... and what department does agent Scully work for?... And did you know the tags on your 1964 Volvo are expired?
MWD: Oh, Appelbaum's Mom didn't send in her regis... I mean, it's the agency's car. You'll have to contact Agent Scully, she can clear all of this up.
Cop: How old are you? You look a little old to be an agent...

13 minutes later...

MWD: yes, it's true, I'm sorry! That thing is an antenna to pick up wireless camera signals of hot chicks in blue dresses. We've been driving around for hours in my friend's mom's car trying to find some naked girls showering on camera. I'm 60! I'm 60 years old, and I all my friends refer to me as "Massive White Dude" I'M A DORK. YES, YES, I CONFESS, I'M A DORK! CAN'T YOU SEE!

Confidentiality & Right to Privacy

Generally speaking I believe that you only have the right to privacy if you have a 'reasonable' expectation that your actions cannot be viewed/heard by others.

For instance, with respect to attorney client privledge, if you talk to your lawyer in a public place and yell your conversation to the word, you waive your priveledge. If you talk to him behind closed doors in your office, you don't, even if somebody is eavesdropping.

I realize that Joe Everybody probably doesn't realize that unencrypted radio waves can be intercepted by anyone, but golly gee whiz. Broadcasting an unencrypted signal IS yelling out to the whole world.

Encrypted Wireless Video

This is exactly the reason why I opted to use a hard wired camera for my home. Before I hooked up the camera, I search all over the place for an encrypted wireless camera. I could not find a single one, not even a high priced professional camera that James Bond would use. It certainly seems like this kind of product would exist. Anyone know of any encrypted wireless video cameras?

Re:Encrypted Wireless Video

The D-Link DCS-1000W is an Ethernet/802.11b wired/wireless camera than can use 128-bit WEP. It's only $200 at CompUSA (the lowest price I could find, even comparing mail order when I purchased it). It has an on-board web server and can even email/ftp date/time stamped images when motion or switch closure is detected (or time based). More here:

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=41

If you'd like to use it as a time-lapse security camera, I have a script on Sourceforge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dcs1000w

64 Volvo pics?

Who can find pics of his 64 Volvo? I'd rather see those.

Could "Massive White Dude" be...

... this guy (ka6mwd) [fcc.gov], or this guy (kc6mwd) [fcc.gov], or this guy (ke6mwd) [fcc.gov], or this guy (w6mwd) [fcc.gov]?

Wanted: Voyeur with experience

From the linked article.

Simon Byers, a researcher at AT&T Labs. "It's so easy, and it's highly entertaining. Just look at the amount of people being arrested for being peeping Toms each year, and all the psuedeo-voyeur type porn out there.

Sounds like Simon is a well rounded and experienced voyeur! I wonder if he has any tips for those looking to get into this field. ;)

PS. This is my 1000th post to /.

Cops with antenna?

I have a question that EEs or radio enthusiasts might consider banal...

I have a RadioShack Pro-94 handheld scanner...I was under the impression that, because it is passive and not a transceiver, it's not detectable. Isn't that the case with their ICOM scanner as well? Maybe I misinterpreting the reason why they split when they saw the cop waving the antenna.

Any RF experts out there? What's the deal?

They found one watching a parking booth.

Damn, I could watch that for hours. Maybe next week they can find a janitor waxing a floor.

Perfect example of the true hacker

Why do they want to intercept video signals, when they find nothing "interesting" by non-hacker standards?

Pure curiosity and the joy of discovering what information is being propagated through the aether.

It's not that different from the motivation behind, say, birders, or SWL's (shortwave listeners--people that do not have licenses and just listen rather than transmitting).

It's just interesting to see and understand what's there.

any screenshots?

I don't see any interesting pictures in the article. Did I miss something?

WIth all that 2.4GHz energies...

being used, you'd think people would be fried right on the spot. Man, now they need to add MORE 2.4GHz stuff? *Puts chicken in air and watch it roast from the 2.4GHz energies* Cheaper than a microwave. ;p

So thats where the MWD's are.

In the bay area.

A slightly related story...

A relative of mine is a special assistant to the state prosecutor of a New England state which I will not mention here. He works in a pedophile unit. One of their more interesting/disturbing cases involved a fellow in a dense residential neighborhood who was setting up a wireless (I assume X10) video camera to keep an eye on his infant while he was on the other side of the house. He turns on the video receiver, and is rather surprised when he starts receiving video from his neighbor's daughter's bedroom. (We'll say he is in house 100, his neighbor is in house 102). He walks next door, and asks the man of the house why there's a camera running in his (teenage) daughter's bedroom. As it turns out, the next neighbor over (house 104) had given the girl a lava lamp for her birthday... with (you guessed it) an embedded X10 cam. As it turns out, he had a camera running in another neighbor's house as well. Today, he is still in jail.

Did no one else wonder if this might happen after seeing X10 popups, month after month, featuring candid shots of scantily clad women?

Looks like it drove the price of the ACN53292 UP..

Check out this google cache here. [216.239.41.104]

Now compare it with the current page here. [med-psych.net]

Video surveillance to watch patrons and employees

A flyer circulating around our Boston Public Library...

Is Big Brother Watching?

The union believes that the library is using
video surveillance to watch patrons and employees
in areas of the library.

The library will neither confirm nor deny
this.

The union is working with our legal department
to explore our options of recourse that you
and the patrons you serve may be illegally
videotaped.

Please Post

Boston Public Library Employees Local No. 1526
http://www.afscmecouncil93.org [afscmecouncil93.org]

logo http://www.afscme.org/images/2001s.jpg [afscme.org]
American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO
http://www.afscme.org [afscme.org]

American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations
http://aflcio.org [aflcio.org]

8 Beacon Street Boston Massachusetts 02108
Telephone [phone] ext 2311 Fax [phone]

allied label http://www.alliedlabel.org/images/label.gif [alliedlabel.org]
ALLIED PRINTING TRADES COUNCIL 73
UNION LABEL
BOSTON MASS
http://www.alliedlabel.org [alliedlabel.org]

See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_o f_Labor-Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations [wikipedia.org]

Collaborative WebLog
A guide to problematical library use
http://GuideToProblematicalLibraryUse.WebLogs.com/ faq [weblogs.com]
http://GuideToProblematicalLibraryUse.WebLogs.us [weblogs.us]
http://GuideToProblematicalLibraryUse.blog-city.co m [blog-city.com]

And this makes the perp's superior.. how?

One person creeps around a neighbourhood looking in windows, he's a sicko peeping tom!

Wealthy north american teenagers go around filming homeless people hurting themselves or tapping into other peoples cyber privacy to make themselves feel superior is culturally tolerable..?

Explain to me how this is'nt morally bankrupt arrogance.

You cannot justify this on technical grounds.

Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet...

feed the troll .... :-D

rtfa gives you

"This kind of snooping doesn't violate federal wiretap laws, which generally protect audio communication, but not video, says Joseph Metcalf, an assistant professor at the University of Oregon law school. Moreover, the law keeps it legal to monitor radio transmissions that aren't encrypted or scrambled in any way, unless they're in a band specifically protected by statute, like analog cell phone signals. "If a communication is readily accessible to the general public, that communication is not protected by the federal Wiretap Act," says Metcalf. "

Basically if you don't encrypt it it's your fault that someone else can read the signal.

Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet...

It is no different than a voyer.

First, it's voyeur, not voyer.

Second, your comparison is fallacious. Sure, I have a right to be protected from people spying on me in my own home. However, if I plastered naked photos of myself all over the 'hood, then I think it reasonable to assume that I've waived this right. Same goes for wireless transmission; if I can receive the transmission in a public place, then those producing the transmission have effectively waived their right to privacy.

In fact, we could take this one step further. If I picked up a broadcast from a security camera, which happened to be pointed at two people fucking on the office copying machine, the company might be liable for broadcasting obscene material.

Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet...

Bah. The right solution to this problem is having the cameras encrypt their signal. Switching to a fascist society will not do the trick.

Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet...

Nobody has a right to sniff like that.

If you don't want people sniffing you, you shouldn't stink up the place.
This is equivalent to communicating with your neighbours by shouting out of the window and then complaining that people are listening to what you say.
As another poster pointed out, if you're broadcasting, you shouldn't expect privacy. If you're sold a wireless system as a private link, then the people to complain to are the sellers of the hardware for false advertising.

Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet...

I know this is a troll but.....
If you're stupid enough to BROADCAST anything without encryption, then you're waving your right to privacy. There's plenty of cameras out there that don't use wireless. If you're worried about privacy, use those.
What IS illegal is enforcing you're own "justice" with a large hunk of wood.
--

Re:I can't believe they aren't in jail yet...

People have a right to privacy.

some might tend to think you don't want privacy if you broadcast videos of your life all over the place

Re:porn and technology

what is wrong with you mods? How was that either flaimbat OR redundant? It was an acurate statement regarding buisness models of the internet. Whoever modded me down is smoking crack.

Re:Admitting you're a dork?

He didn't say jail. He said be taken back to the station. There is a big difference between getting hauled in to the station and being booked overnight at county.

They don't strip search you at the station.

MM
--

Re:Admitting you're a dork?

How many of you would rather go to jail than admit you're a dork?

Tell the truth now, those shower scenes in OZ can get pretty hot.

Mmmmm, Chris Meloni [imdb.com]

Truth be told, you're more likely to end up with this [thesmokinggun.com] uuurrghh!