Hidden Radios in Home Devices (IOT)! The next Cyberthreat

there's been a heavy shift to using new wireless technology standards such as bluetooth low energy zigbee thread from google 802.15 rfid and laura to name the popular ones where the last three decades have been about the internet and the last 15 years was about cell communications and wi-fi there's now a big move to new capabilities in iot devices internet of things devices fact many of the iot devices you buy include a two-way radio in it they don't tell you this these radio transceivers are being linked together to form mesh networks that allow for data to be forwarded over long distances without cost monitoring or an internet in addition new sensors are being built into these common devices that are threatening our privacy in new ways while many of you are excited to check amazon for the next iot gadget the bad guys are looking to take advantage and the bad guy can be the hacker or big tech collecting your info or new players wanting to capture information independent of big tech in all of this the unaware consumer is always the victim so in this video i'll give you a big picture of radio technologies that are in these devices and what these radios can do i will also answer the question about jamming these radio devices at the end stay tuned [Music] i'm on the platform odyssey.com and i'm now one of the top creators on there just for insurance in case i get the platform please follow me there using the link in the description i have a vpn service bytes vpn my company also sells d google phones and vpn routers these products are made to make your identity disappear on the internet and hopefully this video will explain why these products are important if you're interested in them they're on my app bracks me on the store and the link is in the description i'm a licensed ham radio operator and this past weekend was field day for ham radio where operators in the usa and canada do contests to see who can make the most contacts over our hf radios i'll post a video in my sailing project channel about that on ham radio field day we concentrate on voice communications one of the reasons that i got into ham radio is because i understood that the next level of cyber threats will come from radio unlike in the past when communications over the air were analog voice signals or analog signaling using cw or morse code things have changed significantly many of you take for granted that your wi-fi signals cross the airwaves in digital form even your cell data communications are no longer sent with voice data these are all digitized that your voice comes out clear and is free from interference things like your car fob and garage door opener have been sending digitized signals you're all used to wireless devices in the form of bluetooth which you've been using to connect headphones and speakers to your computers phones and car audio wi-fi based devices independently pass video data on your network so you can monitor your house many of you have begun to use home automation products which allow you to remote control your house electrical components and devices technology appears to be moving forward and you're all enjoying the new capabilities of the modern world but not everything is as it seems these technologies extract a cost from society but before i get into specifics of the problem let me explain briefly how radio transmissions now get digital data in ham radio much of the communications were done using voice over a microphone and this gets transmitted using modes like am amplitude modulation fm frequency modulation and ssb single sideband these modes work differently depending on the frequency they have different strengths and weaknesses in the super low frequencies the most common long-range transmission is over am radio and using the am mode often at night an am broadcast in boston can be heard all over the eastern seaboard or all the way to chicago above am radio in the slightly higher frequencies used by ham radio called hf the transmission modes are usually based on ssb because there's a lot of interference or noise in the reception and that is because hf radio relies on reflection from the ionosphere to allow long distance communications reflections will often add in noise so in hf radio we use ssb mode ssb uses a very narrow bandwidth to eliminate the noise thus the name single sideband in the higher frequencies like vhf uhf or microwave there's less noise but the range is limited and the fm mode is used for transmission which is a wideband broadcast fm or frequency modulation as you hear on the car radio has a clear sound and that's because this shifts in frequency inside a broadcast band are used to replicate the sound pattern rather than sending the voice data with a changing signal strength as in am radio and this allows it to exclude the noise the carrier signal in fm is fixed in wi-fi and digital communications these shifts and frequency are now used to send zeros and ones often with clarity one of the common modes used for converting radio data to digital is called fsk or frequency shift keying which is used over fm in other words a fixed carrier signal shifting between two frequencies can signify a zero and a one inside the broadcast of fm fsk is still heavily used now in ham radio many transceiver chips are cheaply made with an fsk encoder decoder or another mode is psk encoder decoder known as phase shift keying psk is used in wi-fi within certain frequencies these modes are very reliable for communications today device to device communications are clustered in certain frequencies 433 megahertz 900 megahertz in some countries 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz both worldwide the reason for the clustering is that these devices are using what is known as an ism band industrial scientific and medical band these are bands reserved by the fcc and other worldwide regulators for these devices what is characteristic of this ban is that the use of these frequencies is by unlicensed users however the devices have to get fcc certification in the us in the lower frequencies below 1 gigahertz typically the protocol used is lora for long range the other transmission protocols like bluetooth reside in the 2.4 gigahertz and above most of you are quite familiar with 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigs when used with wi-fi which is another form of an ism device that is intended to be connected to the internet another thing to note is that radio transceivers and communications technology is sold as a system on a chip or soc in other words there will not be separate components inside the iot motherboard it will be integrated with the cpu thus it does not cost extra to have these radios included normally your own devices transmit only your traffic meaning the security cameras intended to send your video footage to you only but the new trend is to piggyback data over your existing devices other people's data basically using your device to provide a radio network for data to flow from device to device the way this works is that devices are built with the capability of receiving commands on the air as well as forwarding messages intended for other devices i refer to this as oob or out-of-band traffic since it is not your traffic but somebody else's each device can receive a message which it can read using the fsk decoder for example then it retransmits the message over the air if the message is not intended for itself again using the fsk encoder for transmit in this way a message on a particular frequency can be propagated over a large distance by seemingly innocuous devices like an iot light bulb a motion sensor or an outdoor light switch there are ways to ensure that radio traffic is limited first the transmissions have to be very short since the speed of transmission using fsk is very slow then there's a ttl or time to lift parameter included that gives the message a lifespan so it doesn't propagate forever additionally each message uniquely identifies the original device sender so basically a low bandwidth method is now available to send messages anywhere within range of these radio devices typically maxed to one half mile but can hop to unlimited distances if there are other devices in the area that can retransmit many devices have built in bluetooth this includes of course phones cars tvs and various audio appliances like amazon echo these devices use a communication standard called bluetooth classic to transmit large amounts of data within a short range the range of a personal space which is within 10 feet well surprisingly a new standard was developed that can transmit a stronger signal for short bursts and this new standard has a range of one-half mile but the interesting detail is that it is using the same bluetooth radio this particular standard is called bluetooth low energy or ble and with this capability any device with bluetooth can now transmit data to a one-half mile range with just a software change i already made a video explaining how this was done to amazon echos and ring cameras what i didn't tell you was that bluetooth was also built into tvs and now with a software change your smart tv cannot communicate with other ble devices without your knowledge and without your knowledge atv can also be forwarding messages from device to device all day over a very large area until the data reaches some data collection device as it turns out this capability is actually being planned right now broadcast tv will not only send you a digital broadcast it will also be able to get feedback from your tv just like in the book 1984 where you talk back to your tv and monitored by big brother initially today big brother will be nielsen ratings by the way i checked the tv manufacturer samsung vizio lg and others and they are listed as adopters and sponsors of bluetooth the communications from device device has become very sophisticated forming a separate network which is called a mesh network a mesh network is a peer-to-peer network with no home base the ble powers the mesh network known as the bluetooth mesh and that's how it gets the range but in case you think this is the only mesh there are actually many one of them is thread by google google has shared a source code of thread and calls it open thread this particular protocol is even more sophisticated than bluetooth mesh because it includes specific device addressing using ipv6 a standard networking protocol we are familiar with on the internet this is a technology built into google nest so each device is addressable and identifiable to the group by an ipv6 address which also allows a clear pathway from point to point the message forwarding has been enhanced with steroids what is interesting about the use of these technologies which include ble thread zigbee and 802.15 is that they can be used on devices that are battery operated and the battery can power it for a year or more and of course unlimited times if the devices come with a small solar panel the devices are then independent self-powered for long periods portable and cheap these devices also have a direction finding element so signals will be detected directionally it will be possible to specifically target devices within a particular direction direction finding for example is built in apple air tag and likely the tile trackers so you not only know a device is near but specifically where it is geolocation is built into the capability of even the lower frequency ranges used by laura just to make it clear these devices can not only forward messages within a sophisticated mesh network with addressing capabilities but the location of each device will be known since that is part of the protocol capabilities so without your knowledge you are buying devices with built-in radio transceivers that can both send and receive other people's traffic this includes your toaster your camera your motion sensor your tv your refrigerator your doorbell thus it should be obvious that devices become capable of transmitting usage over the air if you flip your tv to a different channel you might expect it to transmit that over the mesh network if your motion detector detects a motion or your outdoor camera turns on then it can be capable of sending this signal to other devices other devices that will forward that data as out-of-band traffic to some unknown destination programmed into the device in another video i talked about rfid and how an rfid can be detected by normal equipment within 200 feet if it is the standard commercial gen 2 rfid but with merely a software change devices can include the code to also send an rfid signal and then read a response back since these are also in the same frequencies as the radius building to many of these existing devices this lets me introduce you to the topic of sensors rfids could be read over long distances and track by sending the data over the mesh in case you didn't know if you have an enhanced driver's license in the us or carrying a recent us passport then there is an rfid on your person even the tires on your car have an rfid this means that it is possible that by embedding software in common devices perhaps even installing software updates without changing devices some entity could repurpose your devices for spying one of the easy targets for this is your smart tv smart tvs get software updates currently some tvs can even watch you since some brands have cameras that are used to switch the devices on and off based on who's in the room again the average consumer is not aware of these things that i'm telling you it would be possible to activate a surveillance system capable of tracking any person's movements anywhere with precision in case you think you can only be tracked by rfid let me tell you about several other radio emissions that occur about your person your phone sends a regular beacon over several frequencies the most common one is over wi-fi the beacon announces your mac address which is a unique identifier to your device it is possible to determine how many times you visit a walmart just by listening to the wi-fi mac address and recording it since the address is unique then it will point to you specifically another mac address is also broadcast over bluetooth there's an open source project called wiggle which is for wireless network mapping they record every mac address detected by people sensing mac addresses in the area check out www.wiggle.net so it is not theoretical that mac addresses can be recorded that project demonstrates it in fact a walmart could use the same software already what changes now is that mac addresses can now be collected and forwarded to a repository automatically over the mesh networks that have been created over long distances with geo locations cameras record videos but specifically ring cameras share the videos in a central database to law enforcement in their contractor and don't dismiss the importance of those contractors because some of the largest contractors are palantir google and amazon which will have direct access to the video the point is that the videos collected from certain cameras like ring and perhaps the google nest cameras as well are centralized combining this with geolocation data the mac address data and rfid data it becomes possible for three letter agencies big tech and these contractors to track our movements by matching video with the presence of secondary identifiers sounds familiar doesn't it it was in some movie um was it eagle eye that was in 2008 now it is actually real if you think these sensors that detect this data is good enough think again there's always more researchers have already found that one can do the equivalent of performing a house x-ray using wi-fi frequencies it can be used to detect movements like infrared of course many houses already have infrared sensors so that would be added in but since wi-fi frequencies are in the same capability of the existing radio transceivers then again they could be used to sense occupancy once again this data can be forwarded over the mesh network to some central repository in the case of amazon the central repository is called amazon sidewalk google of course is the repository of the thread mesh which is what is used in google nest but there's nothing particularly unique about that technology some third party could come up with its own private mesh and forward messages using its own devices implanted in your house for example tvs could be built with an entirely independent mesh network that's not beholden to google or amazon or bluetooth so basically any popular device could be built with a mesh and if it is popular enough it could provide the coverage for large areas we assume here that the security protocols built into bluetooth mesh thread by google and amazon sidewalk or the apple air tag network are secure but as we know hackers will often find a hole and we only know about it when it is discovered no one discovered that a three-letter agency turned your samsung tvs into a listening device that can hear your conversations through the tv speaker in other words they turn a speaker into a microphone simply by software no hardware wiring required if the tv has a camera could that be hacked we already know that many security cameras have been hacked and the video from many baby monitors were re-shown over the internet but the difference today is that the average consumer has made their homes dense with electronic sensors and iot devices without the knowledge that each device can communicate independently with their own independent radios outside of the user's home what effort and cost would it take to install iot sensors at each light pole in a city one that can track devices electronically and forward messages without a wiring or an internet using existing technology this is very inexpensive and merely means screwing devices to each light post without wiring a small solar panel can provide unlimited years of power okay let's switch gears the question often raised is can you jam these frequencies the answer is yes you can jam the frequencies in question there are many hardware tools you can buy that can do this and i can share the device links in the video description just to be clear jamming is illegal there are roving fcc vehicles with the ability to triangulate any continuous transmission if you're a bad guy in antenna causing rf disruption you will be found i am a licensed ham operator i can legally transmit all the frequencies used by ism devices in a laboratory environment where the signal is attenuated to affect only a personal space then it would affect only me and would not be detectable outside in my case i use an attenuated antenna or a dummy load antenna this is my transceiver which is a blade rf and you can see the dummy load antennas jamming a frequency often means transmitting random noise in that frequency there are many open source software that already provide that the technical term for random noise is gaussian noise and there are algorithms that make that jamming gps is even easier because the gps signal is weak to begin with so this requires more care in a laboratory environment since it could affect your neighbors if you want to detect someone transmitting near you like a device sending transmissions which you don't expect for example a tv or see a neighbor is sending jamming signals you can use a detector like this this is a defcon dd1206 i'll leave the link in the description i haven't tried it myself i usually just use a software defined radio like my blade rf or a cheap rtl sdr usb stick to detect transmissions but a portable device is better for getting a signal direction so my friends technology is great isn't it i was gathering with friends who don't know what i do and they were talking about the amazing tech of smartphones and what they can do one of them was talking about how the iphone automatically detected an auto accident and communicated with the other devices on the account in this case the ex-husband awesome stuff it seems or not yes this technology can be used for good but the problem is that when power of control is given to a few then chances are this power will be abused three letter agencies now surveil every move we make as you found out from snowden all in the name of finding terrorists it's a hell of a cause in freedom and privacy and the creepy billionaires like bill gates peter thiel and mark zuckerberg say we have no right to that privacy if you believe what they do then keep buying these kinds of devices and not make a distinction about the hidden capabilities if you're interested in doing research on radio frequencies i'll put a list of example transceivers you can buy with software development kits i have a blade rf as my transceiver there are other ones like hack one rf lime sdr launch xl and so on arduino also has a nano 33 iot i encourage you to get a ham radio license the lowest license covers the ism bans in uhf and vhf might as well be informed in this new threat arena i hope you find my videos of value if you do please hit that subscribe button and the notification bell so you get more of this content you can support the cause by joining us on patreon or checking out our vpn and the google phones in my store thank you for watching you

Channel: Rob Braxman Tech

Views: 852,912

Rating: 4.9407525 out of 5

Keywords: internet privacy, privacy, tech privacy, internet privacy guy, internet of things, iot, iot hidden radios, iot development kits, iot mesh networks, iot hidden mesh networks, zigbee mesh, thread mesh, sidewalk mesh, amazon sidewalk, apple airtag mesh, mesh networks, tv mesh networks, bluetooth low energy, ble, bluetooth mesh network, mesh networks 2021, bluetooth low energy explained, bluetooth mesh direction finding, mesh direction finding, mesh geolocation, lora geolocation

Id: -tIK3Fk-bLA

Length: 24min 48sec (1488 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 01 2021

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Rob Braxman Tech: Did you know that your IOT devices are secretly communicating with each other? This includes IOT devices that are not in your home. Did you know that what your IOT devices do may be transmitted to third parties? Did you know that your TV may also have the capability and may currently be transmitting your activity far and wide?

There are secret communications occurring between IOT devices using protocols like Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, Thread, 802.15, and LoRa that you likely didn't expect or was not explained when you bought these devices.

Just like Amazon Echo has been conscripted to work with the Amazon Sidewalk Mesh network, other networks are in operation and some are completely unknown. Learn about these in this video.

Can you jam these devices? This is answered at the end of the video.

Here are Transceiver Development Kits that techie people can use to play with radio frequencies and see what is actually going on.