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Robotics The Internet

DHS Has a DoS Robot To Disable Internet of Things 'Booby Traps' Inside Homes (404media.co) 140

Posted by BeauHD from the home-network-horrors dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media's Jason Koebler: The Department of Homeland Security bought a dog-like robot that it has modified with an "antenna array" that gives law enforcement the ability to overload people's home networks in an attempt to disable any internet of things devices they have, according to the transcript of a speech given by a DHS official at a border security conference for cops obtained by 404 Media. The DHS has also built an "Internet of Things" house to train officers on how to raid homes that suspects may have "booby trapped" using smart home devices, the official said.

The robot, called "NEO," is a modified version of the "Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) sold to law enforcement by a company called Ghost Robotics. Benjamine Huffman, the director of DHS's Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), told police at the 2024 Border Security Expo in Texas that DHS is increasingly worried about criminals setting "booby traps" with internet of things and smart home devices, and that NEO allows DHS to remotely disable the home networks of a home or building law enforcement is raiding. The Border Security Expo is open only to law enforcement and defense contractors. A transcript of Huffman's speech was obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Dave Maass using a Freedom of Information Act request and was shared with 404 Media. [...]

The robot is a modified version of Ghost Robotics' Vision 60 Q-UGV, which the company says it has sold to "25+ National Security Customers" and which is marketed to both law enforcement and the military. "Our goal is to make our Q-UGVs an indispensable tool and continuously push the limits to improve its ability to walk, run, crawl, climb, and eventually swim in complex environments," the company notes on its website. "Ultimately, our robot is made to keep our warfighters, workers, and K9s out of harm's way." "NEO can enter a potentially dangerous environment to provide video and audio feedback to the officers before entry and allow them to communicate with those in that environment," Huffman said, according to the transcript. "NEO carries an onboard computer and antenna array that will allow officers the ability to create a 'denial-of-service' (DoS) event to disable 'Internet of Things' devices that could potentially cause harm while entry is made."
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DHS Has a DoS Robot To Disable Internet of Things 'Booby Traps' Inside Homes More

DHS Has a DoS Robot To Disable Internet of Things 'Booby Traps' Inside Homes

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  • welp (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @10:45PM (#64650850)
    can't have people's home security recording the cops gunning down unaware civies when they botch another no-knock raid at the wrong address, let's send in the dog that eats internet.

    • Re:welp (Score:5, Informative)

      by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @11:21PM (#64650908)

      Bingo.

      Like when you call the cops because you think someone is breaking in so they come by and shoot you in the face. https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]

      • Fully expect nearly every time this robot is used it will disable all internet connected devices regardless of the situation.

        Expect them to request a kill switch, disable, return to base, stop and pull over, etc. in just about any internet connected device including cars.

        • Re:It's fire and forget (Score:4, Insightful)

          by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2024 @03:16AM (#64651136)
          I guess nobody's heard of the dead man's switch [wikipedia.org]?

        • Fully expect nearly every time this robot is used it will disable all internet connected devices regardless of the situation.

          Expect them to request a kill switch, disable, return to base, stop and pull over, etc. in just about any internet connected device including cars.

          This has been happening for decades already. When I was big on single-track (motorcycles), there were constant police calls for remote kill switches due to how many ass-wipes like to ride wild on their crotch-rockets. Myself? I've always been of the opinion that if you ride like that on a regular basis, you'll eventually get what's coming to you. The only negative when you finally splat into another vehicle out there is that it may scratch a fender or dent a trunk. I never thought the cops needed remote kil

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Calydor ( 739835 )

            The only negative being a scratched truck, AND the driver of said truck feeling guilty for killing someone.

            • The only negative being a scratched truck, AND the driver of said truck feeling guilty for killing someone.

              They didn't kill anybody. Somebody decided to use their vehicle as an accessory in their suicide. Head-ons I get the guilt. Somebody slamming into you while you're driving legally from behind? I mean, I know the human mind is a bear-trap of a guilt creator, but you'd have to make a lot of logic leaps to come to the conclusion you killed the person that ran into you doing 180 in a 65 zone.

              • Re:It's fire and forget (Score:4, Interesting)

                by LazarusQLong ( 5486838 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2024 @11:16AM (#64652178)
                well, counterpoint: you are driving your crappy old Altima at 8 miles an hour over the limit because some cop told you that as long as you kept it less than 10 over, no one would pull you over in that state... you check your mirrors, because you are no longer 18 and you know vehicles can sneak up on you, and seeing NO ONE at all behind you in any lane, you hit your turn signal and move over, once you are half way into your new lane, you feel the car jerk forward and the horrendous sound of rending metal, and a body flies in front of your windshield which you then hit, because you were doing 67 MPH, shit! What the hell happened????? you stop the vehicle and try to piece together what actually happened. There's a body, torn up pretty badly, a lot of blood and what appears to be a smashed motorcycle. You're on the phone with 911 as you attempt to provide first aid to the body, not that you're any good at it but because, Holy SHIT! you've got to do something.

                The police/ambulance arrive and you are a bloody mess, not your blood, probably very freaked out, maybe crying, in any case, YOU will mostly feel responsible. The cops will measure the amount of rubber on the road and then do some level of math and tell you that the guy was doing 150 or so MPH and that there is no way it was your fault, but that wouldn't help you feel any better.

                I usually try to look twice whenever I see a motorcycle, because apparently there are a lot of motorcycle guys in my area (surprisingly it seems to be mostly the Japanese motorcycles that ride way over the speed limit in my area, never the Harley riders) that ride way over the limit, so I can then gauge their speed and choose to just wait until they are past... and As I am in my 60's I am told that most people my age have diminishing sensory capability... but I am not everyone.

                and remember, in that moment, you are not omniscient, you don't know what the motorcyclist was doing, only that he/she is a bloody mess at your feet.

                That has never happened to me, but something similar has. The memories of that night (it was a car for me not a bike) are still vivid and real these 46 years later.

                • for me it was a car. I was getting gas at a gas station on a really long straight road. it was about 2 am. I couldn't sleep and was driving around trying to clear my head. I was 19.

                  About to pull out from the gas station, I looked down the road, sure there was no one else on the road, but out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw headlights, they were maybe a mile away, way down the road. I pulled out, because I thought it was a cop, I did so slowly and carefully didn't spin my tires or anything, by the

                  • I'm not sure what your point is here. In both of your examples, hypothetical and real life, you as the car driver are in no way at fault. Someone else was playing stupid games and for their effort, won their stupid prize.

                    I get the GP's point that the human mind can play stupid games of its own and throw some unwarranted guilt at you. And if you can't quash it rationally on your own with the fact that some A-hole decided to involve you in his stupid version of a suicide, therapy should fixit. But regardl

                    • I tend to thiink that the human brain has multiple parts, the rational, logical part and the emotional part. Sure, my rational brain (such as it is) knows 100% that that car was going pretty damn wicked fast and that having looked and seen it at the top of the hill a mile away or more, and keeping in mind the speed limit of (at that time, on that road) of 55, I could not have known they were going faster than a bat outa hell, but the emotional part of my brain is still at that scene, lots of blood, humans

      • Bingo.

        Like when you call the cops because you think someone is breaking in so they come by and shoot you in the face. https://www.bbc.com/news/artic... [bbc.com]

        But I thought that those were the guys who you wanted to have a monopoly on guns?

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by mspohr ( 589790 )

          No.
          First we take the guns away from the cops. They are the most dangerous.

      • just one more reason to wire your webcams and such, hopefully with some level of faraday cage enclosing the wiring and devices. Because you want to be in possession of any evidence you can... I mean, one of the cops in the source you cited did not even turn on their body cam until after they killed the lady!

        • You probably don't need shielded cables, Ethernet uses twisted pairs so interference is largely self cancelling. You can get them if you want them, though.

          • i just imagine that the police powers that be want there to be no evidence in these sorts of things that they themselves don't control. For example, they probably are being asked how come the officer who shot the lady had had his bodycam off until after the shooting? Most likely then the Department in question will be receiving some heat that they can't shrug off on the officer 100%.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jddj ( 1085169 )

      Agree, but also "can't have them recording cops' creep-and-peep secret-warrant B&E home invasions.

      Great time to have wired Gigabit Ethernet. Like one does.

    • False, the robot dogs are going to do the gunning down, they're takin the cops jobs!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      Which is why such systems should always be wired... It's a lot harder to locate and cut the wires than it is to jam a wireless signal.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        You gotta run power for the camera anyway. Might as well run PoE and kill two birds with one stone. Less WIFI congestion that way as well.

    • Sounds like a good reason to keep a cheap hidden camera pointed at your door maybe an open safe full of fake treasure with a camera too. If anyone asks why you have it you can store it near a firesafe with your tax returns and things like that and tell the judge you figure thieves would stop and load up with gold bars and leave before finding your firesafe and stealing the whole thing even though there isn't anything valuable.

      Naturally most cops will have to pilfer a gold bar just on the principle of being

    • can't have people's home security recording the cops gunning down unaware civies when they botch another no-knock raid at the wrong address, let's send in the dog that eats internet.

      This. You beat me to it.

  • Hmmm... (Score:3)

    by ls671 ( 1122017 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @10:47PM (#64650854) Homepage

    Not sure if it's money well spent. What about simply cutting the power off? I assume somebody tech savvy enough to have UPS in place would also wire and shields his "booby traps" or have them able to work autonomously without any network connectivity.

    • You can buy smart switches these days for almost nothing and have them do things for you like blow stuff up, but they would have to be on your internet. Obviously its possible to make them be more autonomous but that's more difficult and requires more expertise.

      This thing probably just saturates the WiFi bands for enough minutes to eliminate the things that are relatively easy to do.

      • Sensor that detects network jamming and goes boon.

      • Can't you turn on a microwave and get the same for pennies?

        • Re:Hmmm... (Score:4, Insightful)

          by flatulus ( 260854 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2024 @04:36AM (#64651220)
          Not really, A microwave oven emits 2.4 GHz energy on half the AC cycle. So half the time it's not emitting anything. Believe it or not, WiFi works fine in the presence of 2.4 GHz microwave oven interference - it just transmits in the half cycle when the microwave isn't "on".

          One caveat to this, by example. I once lived in a small town and the only Internet service I could get was via 2.4 GHz WiFi. The ISP's base station was only a few hundred yards from my home so most of the time it worked great. But at lunchtime, a restaurant adjacent to the base station was apparently cooking with more than one microwave oven, and apparently they were plugged into different phases (of the two phases available with 240V split phase power). This caused nearly continuous microwave interference for a couple of hours around lunchtime. Nearly made my internet unusable.

          Then there are the other bands used for WiFi - e.g. 5 GHz, 6 GHz (others?), which microwave ovens won't interfere with - ever.

      • Ha ha ha pigs! My home self destruct system is all built on 1970s era X10 technology!
        (i kid i kid i don't have a self destruct system on my home, the guys who renovated my house made sure it can self destruct just fine by itself!)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by vbdasc ( 146051 )

      Not sure if it's money well spent.

      Indeed, an EMP grenade would be cheaper and more reliable.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      A lot of wireless devices are battery powered, after all if you need to wire up power cables you might as well wire data cables at the same time, or all in one like PoE.

      • These surveillance systems, wireless routers, etc often run on a 120v to 12v dc conversion. It wouldn't be hard to run them off a hobby lipo or 12v lead acid battery. Before if I've needed to temporarily extend range, I've deployed a router on a battery. Same with cameras. Or uninterruptible power supply (UPS) computer backup. I have my stereo etc all on that. If the power goes out, sometimes I don't notice right off, everything keeps working.

    • Thats the turbonerd in you talking. Now imagine you're a tweaker who stayed up all night ordering "security" off amazon.

    • Not sure if it's money well spent. What about simply cutting the power off? I assume somebody tech savvy enough to have UPS in place would also wire and shields his "booby traps" or have them able to work autonomously without any network connectivity.

      Battery-powered cameras would keep recording. I expect this T-1000 dog to brick such cameras while cops shoot ladies cowering in their kitchens (no, I'm not kidding. [bbc.com])

    • I think it's money well spent. Right now, any random person can stick a gun onto a wifi camera, with a smart lock to pull the trigger. You can remote control a gun with bits of tape and a consumer app, with zero technical knowledge. I would assume criminals do this primarily against competitors, not against law enforcement, nevertheless it is a real threat for the police. The police need a practical solution they can use when entering every hostile house.

      What about simply cutting the power off?

      No because they can't guess a house is trapped. They

  • Hmm (Score:2, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 )

    Anyone believe illegal immigrants have sophisticated booby trapped homes? This is aimed at who?

    • Re:Hmm (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2024 @01:26AM (#64651026)

      At you, the American citizen. That's who the DHS has always been aimed at. Didn't you know?

    • Heard immigrants use small front doors so that only thin people can enter. Works fine.

      • you joke, but thinking about it, that would be a good deterrent, get a house with very thin doors and windows and the average american police officer, that is big and fully equipped, would not be able to get in.... well, at least until you get americanized and so fat you cannot leave the house.

        • Probably the real reason they need a robot...

        • Remember all those vietnam movies where they hand some greased up shirtless guy a 45 before sending him in a tunnel?
          As others have said they'd probably just use a robot these days.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mysidia ( 191772 )

          and the average american police officer, that is big and fully equipped, would not be able to get in

          This won't work, because the police are so militarized now that they have high explosives on hand which they WILL use to make a path in if they don't have a clear path.

          There are cases where officers have used explosives and destroyed peoples' homes to the tune of $50,000 or more in damage For no good reason; all in the search of suspects who were never even at the place. Oh yeah, and the government wil

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      The immigrants themselves probably not, organised criminal gangs who smuggle people across borders on the other hand are likely to be highly sophisticated and well equipped.

    • "Anyone believe illegal immigrants have sophisticated booby trapped homes?"

      Anyone believe anyone quoted in the article said anything about "immigrants", illegal or otherwise?

      You are making up something just to be mad about as if there weren't real problems here.

  • Hmm, no lasers mounted to its head? (Score:4, Funny)

    by thesjaakspoiler ( 4782965 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @11:01PM (#64650874)

    Very disappointing I would say...

  • This is why all of my IoTBT equipment uses fiber and batteries.

    IoTBT + IFTTT = DHS Toast

    You can't make this stuff up.

  • booby traps? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dfghjk ( 711126 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @11:30PM (#64650916)

    They aren't concerned about booby traps, they're concerned about plain old wireless cameras recording them breaking the law. Sophisticated users are not their concern, nor are wired IoT devices and the techniques used by the equipment could very well be illegal. That's OK though, the conference is closed to the public.

    And "denial of service event" here is a euphemism, no different than a bullet to the head is a denial of service event. It's not a denial of service, it is willful destruction of service...at least some of the time without probable cause.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      My first though was "this is useless", but your application scenario makes a lot of sense.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Wire your cameras in if you can. Have local and cloud storage if possible.

      If you encounter the cops for any reason, make sure their bodycam is on. They usually have a light that indicates that it is recording.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by dwywit ( 1109409 )

        I have a couple of old-school video cameras that use 4mm mini-DV tape. I wonder if there's a market for them.........

        Hide the camera - no easily-detectable IR LEDs, and nothing broadcasting on wi-fi or bluetooth frequencies. And they're reasonably sensitive under limited light.

    • YT has lots of videos on how to check hotel rooms and the like for secret devices etc. They obviously have not watched Breaking Bad, The Americans, or done Chicago crack houses or Vegas SP bookies in the days. The smart TV's that spy on you - not sure if they can be disabled. Microswitches and fishing line, wired IR sensors, hardwired door sensors like reed switches. The cameras go to a control box, whose disk drives are often buried in concrete. Some have air pressure sensors in the room, so drilling hole
    • Streaming meant they could no longer just steal the camera to destroy evidence, so this is how they want to handle criminal behaviors.

  • Has never happened (Score:3, Insightful)

    by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Tuesday July 23, 2024 @11:46PM (#64650932)

    Is there a single case ever of anyone booby trapping their home with IoT devices?

    Wtf?

    That's not a thing. They should be just as concerned about guard leprechauns attacking them when they kick in the front door. Maybe their e-dog needs a garlic spray. Are leprechauns put off by garlic?

    • Came here just to say that. You be me to it.

      The most likely criminal home defence system is a few extremely large, strong, & aggressive dogs. They're tear a very expensive robot dog to pieces.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 0xG ( 712423 )

      Yup. Maybe it fetches donuts for them?

    • By "boobie traps" they mean cameras. They don't want their victims to have evidence of their crimes and abuses when, for example, they make up a false accusation that you've been dealing drugs as a pretense to pretense to invade your home with a no-knock warrant, don't bother to properly identify themselves when they enter, and then gun you down in cold blood when you're unarmed and pose no threat... besides being black. [justiceforbreonna.org]

  • TP needs a major EMP to be affected. Reminds me of those useless "bomb detectors".

  • Everything security in my house is POE Ethernet.

  • Remember folks the American Gestapo buys this shit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Wednesday July 24, 2024 @01:24AM (#64651024)

    to violate the sanctity of your home and do many other unconstitutional things [aclu.org] with your tax dollars.

    It's high-time this shameful Bush-era agency be disbanded.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      The FBI falls under DHS I believe. Now if you want to shut down a J Edgar Hoover Gestapo agency I’m all in. DHS isnt as much as a single agency as it is an umbrella of multiple agencies. It is its own cabinet position. I am just waiting for improvised EMP that fry that robomutt. That should set them back a pretty million.

  • It seems that most people are missing the point on what the purpose of the robot is and claim that their ethernet will not be affected.

    The DHS can already disconnect your ethernet connected devices by cutting the wires to your wired Internet connection. The problem is that there are plenty of COTS IoT devices that are now connected via a sim card that is battery powered.

    This robot is to disconnect those IoT devices.

    • > cutting the wires to your wired Internet connection

      Redunancy is easy.

      Plus if you are simply recording the raid, you just need a local network recording to a small device hidded where it is not easy to get to. A fibre link running up to the water tank, embedded inside more mundane cables, to a small recording device.

      They are targeting the tech simple, those who buy ring doorbels aetc to knock out the cameras inside to remove all evidence that is independant of their bodycams. Also there would I'm sure

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dwywit ( 1109409 )

      I have Starlink* for my internet. I suppose they could shoot it off the roof. And I'm off-grid with 1320ah of batteries.

      *Yes, EM is a scumbag, but my alternative is geo-synch satellite or 1 bar of 4G LTE.

  • This company has an excellent marketing / lobbying team. It's right up there cocaine detection kits to save police officer's lives (despite the fact that police don't actually go tasting every random white powder they find at a suspected crime scene and that no police officers have died from ingesting unknown substances at crime scenes.

    Now we have a robot dog that solves a problem no one has ever had. The sales team better have gotten a huge frigging bonus for this.

    • Now we have a robot dog that solves a problem no one has ever had. The sales team better have gotten a huge frigging bonus for this.

      Now we have a robot dog that solves a problem no one has ever had. The sales team better have gotten a crimes against humanity for this. FTFY.

      I'm exaggerating of course. But I can't help thinking that the people who come up with shit like this, and sell it, and purchase it, are fundamentally divorced from reality and have no sense of a greater good.

  • Keep your robots. Everyone developing this technology should reevaluate their lives because they are making it worse. This will only be used to oppress people and has no upsides.

  • My IoT booby traps fail armed.

    Seriously though I have been wondering about having a SDR that detects this type of DoS or just elevated background noise on the bands that my wireless alarm, remote controls, and Bluetooth/WiFi. Some random things trigger problems and it is nice to have history for troubleshooting.

  • Of law enforcement's bad-behavior? Can't have that.

  • Simple defense against this would be mini directed EMP devices. Take the dog out so it doesn't $H!T in your home.

  • Sure they can take out the wifi network or other wireless networks (zwave, zigbee, lora, ble, etc), but then how do you handle smarter people who have setup controllers to take action when wireless network communication goes down or devices hardwired (shielded cable) to a network?

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Don't want the law getting caught planting evidence. Better make sure all the cameras are disabled.

  • Dog-like robot with antennas that can take over electronics? If they're not calling it K9, I'm going to be very disappointed.

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