A new drone that can be used to hack smartphones and steal personal data all without a user's knowledge has been developed. The Snoopy drone steals data from unsuspecting smartphone users by exploiting handsets looking for a wireless signal.
The quadcopter, developed by a security firm which has offices in South Africa and the UK, uses the company's software, which is installed on a computer attached to the drone. Glenn Wilkinson, from the firm SensePost, said that when the software is attached to a drone flying around an area, it can gather everything from a user's home address to his or her bank information. Many smartphone users leave the wireless option constantly turned on on their smartphone.
That means the phones are constantly looking for a network to join including previously used networks, 'BBC News' reported. "A lot of (past) network names are unique and it's possible to easily geo-locate them," said Wilkinson.
Snoopy demonstrates how someone could impersonate one of those past networks.
Once a user has joined the disguised network, a rogue operator can then steal any information that the user enters while on that network including e-mail passwords, Facebook account information, and even banking details.
Wilkinson acknowledges that the Snoopy software is not a new technology but rather it is just a different way of gathering together a series of known security risks. The drone was unveiled at the Black Hat security conference in Singapore.