Hacker’s Tiny Spy Computers Aim To Track Targets Around Entire Neighborhoods And Cities

Each CreepyDOL computer is built from a $25 tiny, single-board computers known as a Raspberry Pi and designed to be inconspicuously plugged into a power outlet anywhere with public Wifi; O???Connor suggests that the outlets in corners of coffee shops would make perfect hiding spots. When a user’s phone or laptop comes close enough to one of the boxes to connect with the same public Wifi network, the unit can pick up the target device’s MAC address and feed the data back to O???Connor’s server. If the user browses the Web or runs certain apps while on that network, O???Connor says the CreepyDOL software can run the network sniffing program Kismet to ferret out other information from target devices, including users’ names, email addresses and his or her version of Apple’s iOS software revealed by certain applications that send that information over the Internet unencrypted.