The US Division of Homeland Safety has unveiled a dog-like robotic that it says has been tailored to jam the connectivity of good house gadgets.
The DHS’s buy of “NEO,” developed by Ghost Robotics, was introduced to attendees throughout a speech on the Border Safety Expo in Texas, in accordance with a report by 404 Media, and is meant to overload house networks with a lot visitors that IoT gadgets shall be successfully disabled.
“NEO can enter a doubtlessly harmful atmosphere to offer video and audio suggestions to the officers earlier than entry and permit them to speak with these in that atmosphere,” Benjamine Huffman, the director of DHS’s Federal Regulation Enforcement Coaching Facilities, advised convention attendees. “NEO carries an onboard laptop and antenna array that may enable officers the power to create a ‘denial-of-service’ (DoS) occasion to disable Web of Issues gadgets that might doubtlessly trigger hurt whereas entry is made.”
Briefly, NEO is extra of a DoS than a canine. Arf arf.
The canine-like robotic’s Wi-Fi-jamming functionality was apparently first conceived after a suspect in a toddler sexual abuse investigation used his IoT doorbell digital camera to spy on FBI brokers at his entrance door, able to serve a search warrant. The resident used a weapon to shoot useless two brokers by the closed entrance door, and injure three extra.
It is easy to see the attraction of utilizing a robotic like NEO – it will probably carry out surveillance, communication, and be deployed in conditions the place regulation enforcement officers is likely to be vulnerable to damage or encountering booby-traps.
In fact, the police would must be cautious to make sure that any robotic they deployed is programmed to not assault frequencies that they themselves are utilizing.
And now we have to hope that such wireless-jamming know-how is not utilized by anybody for malicious functions.
In the event you’re nervous about somebody jamming your wi-fi good house gadgets, whether or not you’re prone to be visited by a robotic canine or not, then your greatest plan of action could also be to make use of old style hardwired gadgets as a substitute.
Breathe a sigh of aid that, for now, the DHS doesn’t seem like planning any home calls with rifle-toting robotic canines.