This article was taken from the January 2012 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

That buzzing sound overhead -- an innocuous aircraft, right? Or is it a drone with designs on your data? US-based security consultants Mike Tassey and Richard Perkins have shown that you don't need government talent or military coin to build an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can hack into wireless networks. They have made their own Vespid drone, which cost less than $500 (£320), and fitted it out with a 100MW wireless card, a high-gain antenna and a computer.

The drone has onboard tools for performing hacks. "Even if we can't access a [Wi-Fi] network directly by breaking the encryption, we can cause a denial of service condition," says Tassey, 35. This kicks all computers off the network. If, unwittingly, they reconnect via the UAV, the pair can snoop. Alternatively, the drone can impersonate a mobile-phone carrier: "We can entice phones to connect to our 'cellular tower', and redirect and listen in to calls, intercept SMS messages, and cause denial of service for cellular clients," he says, adding that they test the UAV only on their own kit.


They say their drone is merely to alert people to a new hazard: "Think about it in terms of terrorism. We chose computers as our payload, others may choose something worse."

Explore more: Big Ideas For 2012

