Saw a thread about 6 months back where somebody went into details about setting up battery powered routers in public places that connected users to nearby free wifi and uploaded any data that passed through them to a google drive or something similar.
The routers just acted as a middle man between the users and the free wifi so neither side would know anything was wrong. It looked like an expensive hobby since each one of these devices was made to be disposable (an abandoned backpack filled with wires would obviously get a lot of attention once it was found) but it seemed like an effective way of mining data without too much risk as long as it was done properly and it also seems like a good electronics/security project.
It's similar to a device called an "F-Bomb" that uses a Pogoplug to upload the data and is much more compact but this seems kind of like cheating to me and I can't find a cheap supply of Pogoplugs to teardown for parts. A way to make it with a Rasberry Pie as the base would be great but this doesn't seem feasable based on what I've heard.
I don't expect anybody saved the thread, but does anybody know of anything similar or places online where this sort of thing can be discussed without being frowned upon?
Also, does anybody know how to defend against something like this? End to end encryption is an obvious start but does this totally beat this or is more protection necessary?
Read up on man in the middle attacks, and how to protect yourself from them.
Basically NEVER trust free wifi
>>970598
Unfortunately some of us don't have a choice about using free wifi if we want to go online. I can't even afford a $5 data plan for my mobile so McDonalds, college and the community workshop are the only places I get to use the internet.
What exactly do you have in mind that a raspberry pi can't handle? I mean, its got a bunch of USB ports and full blown linux...?
>>970603
No OP but from what I've read (and how I understand it), the USB and ethernet in a RPi are on a shared bus, causing some problems with high data throughput. It makes me doubt its usefulness for MITM attacks without bogging down. Could be different with the RPi 3 though--just a thought.
>>970601
But you can afford a phone with wifi ?
>>970619
$50 for a phone (one time)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/189-1979328-4338533?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=smart+phone
$20+ for a data plan (per week)
http://www.xfinity.com/wifi/default.htm
$50 for a data plan (per week; phone and text plans requisite)
https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html
Can you enlighten us then; of some affordable data subscription? If not, I think it's pretty fucking obvious.
>>970696
Data plan: get a job, maybe even at the mcdonalds you leech off of.
>>970696
>att $50 a week
That is a stupid amount of data to use on your phone.
>>970696
You are doing it wrong, FreedomPop for the poor among us.
>>970696
Harbor mobile $30 month cell + data. Uses tmobiles network. Do you even jew?