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Wi-Fi jamming to knock out cameras suspected in nine Minnesota burglaries -- smart security systems vulnerable as tech becomes cheaper and easier to acquire (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 29 points 2 years ago (12 children)

I never understood wifi cameras, because yes of course it's super easy to jam them. You need a power cable there anyway, is a data cable then really such a hassle?

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  • [–] 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Yes. With WiFi cameras you don't need to run any cable, just plug in to the nearest power outlet. That's very appealing to people.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Surprised they haven't got them based on powerline (running a slightly worse ethernet though the electric lines). That way you'd still only need the one cable, and be able to lock people into your own powerline ecosystems.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    Power line Ethernet is actually more similar to wifi than Ethernet the way it works, it uses your power cables as an antenna. Probably won't be jammed as easily though, you may need to plug the jammer into an outlet.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago

    I have a wifi camera. It saves locally to sd card. When it's jammed, it won't be accessible, but it'll still record motion, so recording will be accessible as long as camera itself isn't stolen.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I think a lot of them, like the Google doorbell camera use rechargeable batteries. So you don't even need the power cable. Just take it off of the mount every few weeks to charge it back up.

    Then throw it in the trash in 2-3 years once the battery sufficiently degrades and buy a whole new one of course.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago*

    My video doorbell takes power from the existing doorbell wiring, but there’s no reasonable way to use that for data, so it’s WiFi (I really should see if I can pull Ethernet through but then I need to pay for a new camera)

    Other models are battery powered and supposedly last as long as half a year.

    I’ve seen WiFi cameras you can hang anywhere: battery powered and kept charged with a small solar panel

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