Prototype SkyNET bot. (via SIT)
Look out America SkyNET is real. Stevens Institute of Technology (SIT) scientists built a WiFi hunter-killer drone!
SkyNET is a marriage of a Parrot A.R. Drone and a Linux box. A Parrot A.R. Drone is hardly your ordinary remote-controlled quadricopter, as it's not only controlled via WiFi, but via an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch --an Android app for the device was also recently demoed by the company, but it's apparently still not available.
The SkyNET bot was designed to attach wireless networks. It will fly around finding various open networks, and attack it with a botnet it has onboard. Botnets are often used in hacking efforts, Denial Of Service attacks, spamming, and other nefarious internet activities. The bot carries two wifi-cards. One is for the bots controller, and one for performing the attacks. Also, onboard is a GPS receiver, 3G mobile broadband connection, and a small Linux computer. The central processor is a 468Mhz ARM9.
For those who are a little devious SkyNET is hard to detect. The concept is to separate the bot's controller/owner from the internet attack location. Sounds like a Ghost in the Shell (or a general Cyberpunk) story component.
Attached to this post is a whitepaper on the concept and operation.
Sounds fun and all, however, the $600 price tag is a little steep. Aside from botnet attacks, I am sure we will see more bots like this SkyNET hunter/killer do other acts of ill-will in the near future.
Somewhere, James Cameron is rolling his eyes.
Eavesdropper
Attachments:
| Reed.pdf |
