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LAPD warns residents after spike in burglaries using Wi-Fi jammers that disable security cameras, smart doorbells (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 3 months ago by lemmee_in@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world

213 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Los Angeles Police Department has warned residents to be wary of thieves using technology to break into homes undetected. High-tech burglars have apparently knocked out their victims' wireless cameras and alarms in the Los Angeles Wilshire-area neighborhoods before getting away with swag bags full of valuables. An LAPD social media post highlights the Wi-Fi jammer-supported burglaries and provides a helpful checklist of precautions residents can take.

Criminals can easily find the hardware for Wi-Fi jamming online. It can also be cheap, with prices starting from $40. However, jammers are illegal to use in the U.S.

We have previously reported on Wi-Fi jammer-assisted burglaries in Edina, Minnesota. Criminals deployed Wi-Fi jammer(s) to ensure homeowners weren't alerted of intrusions and that incriminating video evidence wasn't available to investigators.

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[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I’m curious if these are actual jammers or just deauth devices.

It also seems really risky because I think we have three different bands Wi-Fi devices use now?

[–] tryitout@infosec.pub 11 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean actual jammer? If it puts out RF at a power level greater than the surrounding environment it is a jammer, correct? I would think for this attack to work you could just target the camera freqs used, you don't have to target the whole home's WiFi network. Probably a narrower range to focus on.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I don’t think it’s that simple. The newer Wi-Fi standards are broadband (something on the order of 1GHz wide!), so the required power spectral density to block Wi-Fi across all channels is pretty extreme. I don’t think you’re doing that for $40. We should also keep in mind the standards were designed to operate in environments with other unlicensed devices and in the presence of interference.

If you just want to target the frequencies the cameras are using, that would require a little bit of research skill that I think would elude most criminals. Also, some routers will change frequencies if the interference is bad.

If I were building such a device I would use off the shelf Wi-Fi hardware and send deauthentication frames to any nearby stations. But even with this approach, there are devices that will ignore such frames now because it’s been a problem.

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

WiFi 6 camera probably exist, but most will use WiFi 5 or lower. Theres only 13 channels and of those usually only 3 or ever used due to band overlap.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago

Good point! I forget these devices are rather cheap.

[–] fishos@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Lol. None of my smart devices will connect to anything other than a 2.5ghz connection. Only my TV will accept 5g. The range is MUCH narrower than you think. Then figure in that the top 5 or 6 companies provide hardware for 90% of peoples home installations and that pool becomes even smaller. Also, a microwave operates on the same frequency as 2.5 and was a common disconnection problem in the past.

This is trivially easy.

[–] GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk 1 points 3 months ago

I'm down to two 2.4GHz devices over the whole network now.

The day I can disable it entirely will be a happy one!

[–] PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee -2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's all just radio signals.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Radio can be delightfully complex. I can’t help but be curious.

[–] PythagreousTitties@lemm.ee -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Oh I agree. It's very cool stuff. It's pretty amazing what we can do with it.