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.
back in the day, the trick was to cut the phone line, then shove the cut wire back in the phone box. wait for the police to come and see that there’s nothing wrong, then you go and burgle.
They’d be starving after waiting for 3 days.
That’s why wireless security devices are a joke. And it is not only WiFi, this is BlueTooth and other protocols like that, too.
Good security (and common sense, too) would be to have such devices wired up. And check the spectrum for jammers and raise an alarm about that, too.
Meanwhile, the irony is that WIFI stands for WIred FIdelity
Oh, grasshopper, have you not learned yet not to trust marketing terms?
It doesn’t.
This is one of those things I thought would always remain firmly within the realm of science fiction. Watching movies and reading books growing up, movies like “The Matrix” and books like “Snow Crash” and “Neuromancer,” I’d always be fascinated with high tech burglary. The idea that one could intercept communications, jam frequencies, or anything of the like, always just seemed a bit too out of reach for modern day criminals. And yet, here we are.
A jammer is less sophisticated than a crowbar. It’s not like the burglar designs it themselves. Nor are they hacking your network to gain access, they just shut everything down.
Its like laying on your horn to stop people from hearing each other. Low tech.
It’s actually not that high-tech… Like jamming a wifi signal is basically like just shouting over someone to prevent them from speaking (or at least from being heard). To make one from scratch, you need a little bit of technical prowess, but it’s definitely a beginner project… But to use one, you literally just turn it on, and maybe choose a frequency. They’re widely available and cheap.
There are pretty cool sophisticated digital crimes out there though, so take heart!
I would think most wifi jamming is just deauth attacks. It is much easier to just channel hop, enumerate clients, and send them deauthentication packets.
This way you don’t need a particularly powerful radio/antenna, any laptop/hacking tool with Wi-Fi is all you need. There are scripts out there that automate the whole thing, so almost no deep knowledge of wifi protocols are required.
WPA3 has protected management frames to protect against this but most IoT cameras probably don’t support WPA3 yet.
That’s a relatively sophisticated attack though, and like you said is dependent on versions of WPA. It’s easier from a hardware perspective but more complicated software.
A 2.4 and 5ghz jammer is just simpler. Turn it on, everything fails. Even stuff that doesn’t talk Wi-Fi like Zigbee. Throw 400 and 900mhz on there too and now even residential security sistems will be frozen. It’s just simpler to use brute force for something like this.
Worked at an old job where one guy, that had access to the router settings, would disable the Blink Cameras so he could forge his time cards.
Owners ended up realizing the cameras would only be disabled when he was on shift.
I worked at Walmart ages ago and one of the overnight assistant managers would do this and then steal cash out of the cash office until he finally got caught.
In my big American metro area, the burglars usually mask up and roll in with swapped plates, a car they stole, or a car they got off a Kia boy for $100-$200. They’re tough to catch in the act or identify with video surveillance, even with a new hardwired or pre-WiFi hardwired system.
Own a musket for home defense, since that’s what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. “What the devil?” As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. I blow a golf ball sized hole through the first man, he’s dead on the spot. I draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it’s smoothbore and nails the neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, “Tally ho lads” the grape shot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
My August lock wifi goes down like 4 times a week. I feel so safe.
Wish it had an Ethernet option, not sure how that would work on a door though lol
Wish it had an Ethernet option, not sure how that would work on a door though
You’d just run a cable to the door from the hinge side, preferably inside the door through the hinge so it’s not visible on the door itself. This is a very common solution for electronic locks in office buildings for example.
All of my cameras are hard wired. It’s going to take a lot of power to jam those.
You’d be surprised. A CB radio with a high wattage amplifier is enough to scramble analog hardwired cameras when its keyed up.
I regularly transmit 100 watts on HF using a dipole over my house. That’s never knocked any of my IP cameras out. It’s going to take more power than that, especially if you want to stay far enough away that the cameras can’t get good video of you.
I’m talking semis with ~1000 watt linears. And analog hardwired cameras. I can watch it happen at work.
That doesn’t surprise me, it’s a lot easier to interfere with analog video signals and 1kW is a lot of power. Some ferrite beads and better coax can make them much less susceptible to interference though.
CB amplifiers are not well known for producing clean signals, especially when the operator is trying to get as much power out as possible.
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?
It’s all just radio signals.
Radio can be delightfully complex. I can’t help but be curious.
Oh I agree. It’s very cool stuff. It’s pretty amazing what we can do with it.
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.
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.
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.
Good point! I forget these devices are rather cheap.
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.
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!
I wish that apps notified you when your camera has been unreachable for too long, but at least that’s a hint that a jammer may have been involved. Cameras won’t stop them, but a the best setups would rely on wires and hidden local and cloud storage for recordings and alerts.
A numbers of cameras tell the user when they go offline, but yeah, a lot do not. I have a HomeKit system that sends an alert when WiFi or power has been interrupted to the camera or the primary hub.
apps notified you when your camera has been unreachable for too long
The volume of false positives this produced would render the system significantly less useful.
Especially if X# of cameras are down
Amcrest’s app does, and you could do it yourself with something like Home Assistant.
Just picked up our 2nd bullet 4k with ai. It’s a good addition to my nvr.
The thieves are jamming WiFi systems and the comments on the article and on Lemmy seem to blame the victim for not being tech savvy. The bulk of Nest/Ring customers do so because the app is easy to use and the cameras easy to setup. By definition the victims are far less likely to be able to defend against this kind of jamming attack.
If the next step in escalation is to shut down the power to the house, will the victim be blamed for not having home batteries and solar panels?
Why not question the viability of WiFi systems in general? Has video ever been more than a deterrent to those scared of cameras? Fearless thieves who know how to deter the systems get free loot for their trouble.
Treat security like we did before 2010; improve physical security to defend instead of relying on deterrence.
I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do what I did. I have a WiFi doorbell camera but I also have 13 other cameras that cover the entire perimeter of my house connected to a PoE switch. My switch is on an UPS and connected to an outlet my natural gas generator cutover powers. My office (includes my miniPC running HAOS and frigate) is also on an UPS plugged into outlets my generator cutover powers in a locked cage inside a vented drawer with a 120mm exhaust fan to keep air circulation going in the drawer. All motion is recorded and saved to my local NAS (that is in the same locked cage) for 30 days and it syncs the recordings directory to the cloud. I have isolated cameras that look like usb chargers that record motion on a loop to 128GB micro sd cards aimed at all entry/exit points, hallways, and points is interest. Everything is pretty much set it and forget it. I get notified of any motion on my property regardless of my location and the jpeg captures are immediately sent to a dedicated email I setup should something unforeseen happens to the recorded video. If my or my partners cell phone is not on the WiFi all the cameras (except the doorbell and isolated ones) are set to siren mode on movement detection and they are surprisingly loud especially if two or three are going off at once.
You’ve absolutely nailed the smug tone some of the comments here have, good work.
Also, imagine explaining all that to my mum, you’d be there all week.
I don’t know why everyone doesn’t do what I did.
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Your setup is fucking insane, and I mean that in a good way. As someone who ran a small team focused on security and who entertained more than one “I totally sploited our OS/let me show you how we suck today so we can fix it” conversations with dizzyingly smart zealots, this setup has excellent layering and coverage. Well fucking done.
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Cost. The same people who say “I’m on a pension so they can’t steal much from me” without realizing their retirement savings and credit rating are the golden fucking goose, also won’t see the benefits to such a cost in capital and setup labour. They won’t do it, and they’ll see us as nutcases until the leopards have eaten their face.
I very much doubt they genuinely have all that, this is pretty obviously sarcasm.
I was making a joke using the absurdity of what I put together as a hobby project over the past couple years as an example to reinforce the comment I replied to. I’ve spent my whole career in IT and it’s absurd the level of knowledge a lot of career or even hobbyist IT folks expect the general public to have.
My generator cost $8k installed.
I ran all the cables myself, still cost $1k for the materials.
Doorbell camera $200.
PoE cameras averages to $174 each or ~$2,500
UPS’s: $300 combined
MiniPC: $500
Cage and mounts: $150
Isolated cameras: $30 ea
SD cards: $15 ea
All told I have over $13k invested easily and it would easily be over twice as much without knowing how to do it myself. Anyone giving folks shit for using WiFi security systems is out of touch.
Fence with a lock on it is a lot cheaper. Crazy how much people will spend on surveillance, given how little it does to achieve deterrence.
I got insurance. I’d help load the truck rather than get shot if someone broke into my house and I was home. This has mostly been a fun project hobby that I can continuously tinker with while working in my office from home. I’ve had a lot of trouble finding a hobby I’m able to stick to that is mentally challenging and rewarding to me. The progressive learning has been great and has me excited to continue with further integration. That said. I will have evidence for police and insurance. I also enjoy watching the deer and other wildlife without going outside which tends to change their behavior.
Also, thank you, that’s nice to hear from someone in that line if business
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You just said HAOS and Frigate, and “set it and forget it” in the same statement. As a long time user of both I call shenanigans.
I also think you overestimate the ability of the average person. My mom barely knows how to work her Ring doorbell camera.
That was one of my attempts at playing my hand that I was being sarcastic. I tinker with the shit weekly and yes it is way beyond what any reasonable person should be expected to invest or understand. It’s just become a hobby of mine and I was trying to be funny, which I’m not very good at.
Family members will think twice about masturbating in your house.
Nah, they’ll just do it while staring directly at the camera. Gotta get that eye contact.
If my or my partners cell phone is not on the WiFi all the cameras (except the doorbell and isolated ones) are set to siren mode on movement detection
Is this something you coded, or are there security camera brands that support it natively?
The only part I coded was sending the api calls to cameras to turn on/off siren mode. I relied on a lot of other folks reverse engineering to help me along.
Can’t go wrong with a german sheppard.
Until he gets bored and starts gnawing on the linoleum
That’s what the burglars are for.
LAPD is recommending cutting back shrubbery and coordinating with neighbors for extended leave… As a Los Angeles native, neither of these things happen. After all, high walls make for good neighbors.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’ Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: ‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense.
I tried to get the formatting right, but oh well
Yeah, it’s not really a spike in burglaries so much as a spike in a specific tool being used in burglaries. Whether they use a brick, wifi jammer or a gun they were going to rob someone someway…
Or a hoodie. I’m not sure why it’s a big g deal to WiFi jam a video doorbell when you can also defeat it with a hoodie …. Plus that’s not a burglar alarm.
Whoever is peddling anything as a burglar alarm that depends on WiFi is the real criminal
Jammer also keeps people from getting a notification that someone has come into view on the camera. An away homeowner who sees a person coming through their front door can call the police. With no notification you don’t know until you get home and they’re long gone.
FCC is gunna start blasting
If only there was a solution, I don’t know, a cable resistent to jamming the ether, something we could call ether-jamming-resistant-network, in short Ethernet
I know… I am just dreaming :-P
As a side business I consult and install security systems in small businesses and homes.
Literally none of them want the cable option, no matter how hard I push it.
The cost of running the cable and the time needed always is the dealbreaker.
Doesn’t matter if its insecure, they just want it to work now and be cheap.
It’s bizarre.
In my last apartment, I literally had to fight to get a DHCP/ethernet + EDGE (yes, really) connection installed.
They kept asking me why I want two 😅
wdym DHCP?
And what’s an “EDGE” supposed to be? I only know that term as the old mobile standard. I believe it was 1G or 2G?DHCP as in it’s an ethernet connection to a residential router that provides the device with connectivity details.
Normally this isn’t considered as secure as a bad actor can cut the power or connecting cables (e.g. If you’re using dsl) to kick your system offline.
And, yeah, my old security system absolutely had an old 2G/EDGE modem to connect and send basic signals (as a fallback, in case of the above power cutting scenario). Was great.
Sorry but I still dont quite get it. Your apartment gave you basically a network inside their residential sorta ISP?
At least in Germany, you are responsible for your own internet provider access and (at least to my knowledge) don’t need to jump through hoops to get something else because the house doesnt do it and it’s your problem.
So if you want a main connection with a WAN-fallback, you just buy a router (or modem router combo) that can do it.
Only exception might be something like coax-based internet but that’s a problem with the provider.
It’s easy to write snarky comments like this, but the truth is running cables isn’t easy, and in some cases simply not possible, at least if you don’t want the cable simply draped over the outside of the house.
Alternative is like… a single gigabyte of local storage on these things
That could just as easily be stolen
It depends how easy to reach the camera is, I can’t see a thief sticking around long enough to set up a ladder to grab the camera, for example.
If they’re setting up a WiFi jammer, a ladder wouldn’t be an absurd thought.
They’d have the jammer already set up, either in a vehicle or on their person. A ladder is much more conspicuous.
Me being cheap pays off; wifi cameras are expensive as fuck so I just have wired ones that don’t do anything on the Internet.
Sick, where do I get those jammers?
I’m not gonna rob anyone, I just don’t want cameras working nearby me.
You do realize it stops wifi in general from working, not just the cameras
If I’m out in the world around unfriendly cameras I’m probably not on Wifi anyway. And yes, I know all the reasons they’re illegal, this isn’t completely serious.
It doesn’t even stop the cameras, which would continue to record and save in their SD cards locally.
Ones that have that feature. Some popular cheaper brands (e.g. Ring) the individual cameras can’t support SD cards but the base station can but they need wifi to be able to do that.
Ring is not a cheap camera. The $20 Chinese cloud cameras sold on Amazon are extremely common and they all have MicroSD card slots as a backup option.
Smash microwave oven window and you got a very powerful jammer
Hey it tickles
Something tells me that systems will just have a strong dummy wireless signal act as a tripwire and then it goes down, it triggers stuff…even super low end stuff could implement it.
A massive net to catch the baddies
Some systems already have that. Replaced a switch yesterday and re-arranged some things on my network board and got a HomeKit notification that some things were offline and when it came back. Knowing when something goes offline isn’t as useful as keeping things up though. With something like a hardwired camera/NVR, even if your ISP service is interrupted the cameras can still record, and you can put a UPS there to keep things going, even if the rest of the network is down.
