(Image Source: Wired)
BY LOGAN TITTLE
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY
You're watching multisource tech video news analysis from Newsy.
There’s a new bug flying around— it can sting you from 400 feet away -- and you wouldn’t even know it.
It’s called a remote-controlled plane called WASP—or Wireless Aerial Surveillance Platform.
CNN explains...
“It can intercept your cell phone conversations and even reroute your calls to another number. It can trace the location of specific people and follow them home… and steal information from a target’s home network…”
International Business Times reports -- the 6-foot-long drone can weight up to 16 pounds and can fly for 30 to 45 minutes at an altitude of 22,000 feet—though, legally, it can only go as far as 400 feet.
And at just 50 feet -- you won’t even hear it coming.
Sounds like quite the project, but it’s not—and that’s the problem. The two researchers who developed WASP say...
“It’s quiet, cheap, and able to be built in a garage using hand tools… and open source technology at a fraction of the cost.”
But don’t start ducking just yet—Wired tells us there’s still some good that can come from the prying plane.
“…they would be great for providing emergency cellular access to regions hit by a disaster…[they] could also… run search-and-rescue missions for lost hikers.”
The WASP drone was unveiled at the Black Hat Technical Security Conference.
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Transcript by Newsy.
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