For the past 21 years, Matt Edmondson, a federal agent at the US Department of Homeland Security, has received many requests for help from clients who need to know if someone is tracking them, so he designed a simple device to see if you are being monitored, according to a report published by Wired. (wired).
"If you're trying to figure out that you're being watched, there are ways to detect tracking," Edmondson says.
If you're driving, you can change lanes on a highway, make a U-turn, or change your lane;
This can help determine if the vehicle is following you.
It wasn't enough, Edmondson says, if the tracker was an expert at hiding its tracks. "If they have those skills, you need an electronic device," he says.
Concerned for the safety of his secret informant, and after not being able to find any tools that could help him, Edmondson, a hacker and digital forensic expert, decided to build his own anti-tracking tool.
Edmundson built the anti-tracking tool using parts that cost about $200 total, and will present the research project at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas this week.
He used a "raspberry pi", a credit card-sized small computer that has a core processor, a graphics processor, and 256 megabytes of memory.
The anti-tracking tool can be carried or installed in the car, and the tool searches for nearby devices and alerts you when the same phone has been detected multiple times in the past 20 minutes.
In theory, it could alert you if a particular vehicle is following you.
Recent years have witnessed a steady increase in the number of means by which people can be tracked (Al-Jazeera)
Simple anti-tracking device
The anti-tracking tool can be placed inside a shoebox-sized case and consists of: a Raspberry Pi computer that runs the program, a Wi-Fi card that captures nearby devices, a small waterproof case that protects them, and a portable charger that powers the system.
The touch screen displays the alerts the device is issuing, and each alert could be a sign that you're being watched.
The device works on the Kismet system, which is a network detector and network intrusion detection system, capable of detecting smartphones and tablets around it that are looking for Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connections. The phones we use are constantly searching for Wireless networks around it, including networks you've connected to before as well as new ones.
Edmondson says that CSMIT records the device number when it is first detected.
But to make the anti-tracking system work effectively, Edmundson had to write Python code to generate lists of what KSMMET detects over time, with a list of data on devices detected in the past 5 to 10 minutes, and 10 to 15 minutes, and from 15 to 20 minutes.
If the device appears twice, an alert flashes on the screen, and Xmit can also log the names of Wi-Fi networks that devices around it are searching for.
To prevent the system from listing your phone or the phones of other people traveling with you among the detected phones, it has an "ignore" list.
By clicking on one of the device buttons that appear on the screen, it is possible to "ignore everything he saw".
Edmundson says the device could be modified in the future to send a text alert instead of showing it on a screen, and he's also interested in adding the ability to detect tire pressure monitoring systems that can repeatedly show nearby vehicles.
A GPS module can also be added so you can see where you are when you're being tracked, the report says.
Edmondson has no plans to turn the device into a commercial product, but says the design can be easily copied and reused by anyone with some technical knowledge, and many of the parts involved are easy to get from any electronics store.
Ultimately, Edmondson says, the tech community needs to take technology tracking and monitoring more seriously;
“It was really frustrating to look at the ratio of tools available to spy on people versus tools to help prevent spying on them,” he said, adding that someone close to him had been a victim of spying in the past.