{"id":34224,"date":"2014-03-26T09:12:31","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T16:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.mcafee.com\/?p=34224"},"modified":"2025-08-07T23:10:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:10:31","slug":"drone-can-fly-spy-smartphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcafee.com\/blogs\/mobile-security\/drone-can-fly-spy-smartphone\/","title":{"rendered":"The Drone that can Fly and Spy on Your Smartphone"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many, the notion of a flying drone conjures an image of an unmanned airborne military surveillance machine, or a high-flying courier sent to deliver your latest Amazon purchase. As a developing technology, the threat of drones being used for cybercriminal sabotage (especially on civilians, such as you and I) seems distant\u2014but it might not be as foreign a concept as you may think.<\/p>\n

Security researchers in London have successfully built a program<\/a> dubbed “Snoopy” that orders drones (small unmanned aerial vehicles that can be remotely controlled) to seek out smartphones and steal their data. And it does so exceptionally well.<\/p>\n

Snoopy is a simple concept: the drone takes flight and searches for a particular signal used by smartphones to find a Wi-Fi connection. It\u2019s the equivalent of your phone shouting \u201cStarbucks!\u201d in order to find and connect to Starbucks Wi-Fi. Once a signal is found, Snoopy tricks your smartphone into thinking it has joined a trusted network and then proceeds to steal your data sent via your device when using that connection.<\/p>\n

This type of attack is what we refer to as a \u201cMan-in-the-Middle<\/a>\u201d attack. It\u2019s a simple concept: hackers aim to intercept your data in between two connection points\u2014in this case, your device and the Wi-Fi signal.<\/p>\n

The stolen data in this case includes access to the sites a user has visited, usernames, passwords, credit card information\u2014anything that may be transmitted over an app and typed into the phone by the user. It also includes location data and a list of networks you’ve connected to previously\u2014including home and work Wi-Fi networks\u2014in order to build a better profile of you, their target. During a test with CNN<\/a>, Snoopy was able to cull network names and global positioning system (GPS) coordinates of about 150 phones in under an hour in a downtown London park. Like I said: it does its job exceptionally well.<\/p>\n

Despite its efficiency, the success of Snoopy depends on users doing two things that should not be done: 1) keeping your phone’s Wi-Fi connection on, and consequently in search mode, and 2) automatically joining public networks when an available Wi-Fi signal is found.<\/p>\n

So should you expect a swarm of drones flying about your home and neighborhood sucking up as much data as possible? Absolutely not. Snoopy is just a theoretical example (or proof-of-concept creation) produced by a group of professionals whose job is to research these very vulnerabilities and subsequently address them.<\/p>\n

Tips to Protect Yourself and Your Data<\/h2>\n

However, well-versed hackers require little to leverage this type of attack. All that\u2019s needed is a wireless router and the some know-how. Executing a man-in-the-middle attack over a drone is more of a media gimmick than a practicality (though the message about improving phone security is still important). Finally, the drone’s attack is a bit impractical to do without being noticed\u2014the drones used in this case aren’t exactly inconspicuous and Snoopy needs to be relatively close to the target device to succeed\u2014but it does serve to illuminate a few measures you can take to protect yourself and your data:<\/p>\n