Anti-surveillance hardware showcased at DEF CON 34
Security researchers at the annual hacker conference demonstrate tools to detect and counter pervasive surveillance technologies.
What to know
- Security researchers at DEF CON 34 demonstrated hardware tools designed to passively detect surveillance cameras and other tracking technologies in everyday use.
- Kenneth Payne's flock detector uses Wi-Fi probes to identify license plate readers without direct contact, emitting audio alerts when detection occurs.
- Speakers framed anti-surveillance tool development as a community effort responding to increasingly pervasive hidden surveillance in urban environments.
“It's really relying on a lot of people who are actually actively going out and doing the research and then sharing that data that you can then use to figure out what are they doing with this next and how can we then alter our detection methods?”
Kenneth Payne, Security hardware maker · YouTube video
Kenneth Payne Security hardware makerLudlow Institute DEF CON event organizerPresenter Security researcher
The record 2 articles and posts · last 30 days
What people are saying 11 voices from 2 sites · best of 12 · verbatim
- Aug 22
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Defcon has been nothing but feds and 3 letter agencies for years if not decades. Assume all of these are bypassed
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I'm not sure I understand Simulacra. I get the idea, just spam devices around the area in hopes you're lost in the crowd. But anything designed to track you is purpose built to handle tons of devices moving about. Maybe if everyone had one in their pocket we could overload the surveillance devices, but at best you're just bloating their logs.
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Sigh, researchers used to publish cutting edge stuff.That list reads like a fist year lab schedule. lol =3
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Is anyone familiar with the laws surrounding police basically operating their own pseudo cell towers?I would assume this would be highly illegal for individuals, what sort of hoops did law enforcement need to jump through to get this type of approval? Did FCC need to rubber stamp this?
- Aug 21
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Cool, I like the esp idea but won't you have to walk fairly slowly with a default ESP antenna? High gain might be better.. If you're wearing a cap you may not care as much being seem from above vs from the front. Maybe attach a little windspeed meter to the top of the antenna on your hat too ;)
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The "Crypto and Privacy" village at Defcon demands you agree to the privacy policies of Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, and Discord to interact with them. It is a disgrace.Defcon stopped caring about privacy, hacker ethos, and digital sovereignty a long time ago.Go there if you want to talk to their military recruiters or buy/sell proprietary snake…
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Great video, thanks for posting. Since Meshtastic keeps coming up in the video — if anyone here is heading to Burning Man, there's a dedicated mesh network for the event. I will have a couple nodes running on it :)
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Glad this one is getting the "second chance" bump back to the front page. It's great content and it's timely. It's a great video.If you're not inclined to watch the video I'll save you a click to the youtube description and add a bit more detail than the earlier sibling for the devices shown:Simulacra"Simulacra continuously fabricates a churning…
- Aug 18
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> ESP32 based device that tries to detect bluetooth/MAC addresses of flock cameras and beeps when it doesIs it this thing?
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Partial summary:-ESP32 based device that tries to detect bluetooth/MAC addresses of flock cameras and beeps when it does- a Stingray detector that runs on a second-hand mobile hotspot- a device that alerts you about things that are moving approximately with you (AirTags, SSIDs, etc).
- Aug 14
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P
DEF CON is one of the largest and longest running hacker conferences in the world. It's held every August in Las Vegas since 1993 and it's a gathering of security researchers, [music] hackers, tinkerers, journalists, curious weirdos, and quite a few feds who all share an obsession [music] with taking things apart and understanding how they really…