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this is hardly a new attack when GPS trackers existed before
by donkarma 5y ago
this is hardly a new attack when GPS trackers existed before
- reed1234 5y agoAnd AirTags even alert those (iPhone users) being tracked so they are even less practical
- JohnTHaller 5y agoExcept for the folks who aren't iPhone users, which is the majority of people.
- Ekaros 5y agoMaybe some sort of audible alarm could be in order. Let say every 1-4h hours.
- watermelon0 5y ago> AirTags will beep if they are away from their owner's iPhone - at a random time between eight and 24 hours However, it's possible to damage the speaker, so it becomes silent, without damaging the AirTag itself.
- ZekeSulastin 5y agoThey actually do start an audible alarm after being separated from their owner, starting sometime between 8 and 24h after separation. I don’t know the interval though.
- oneplane 5y agoThat's not great if someone steals your backpack and finds out you're tracking it.
- alwillis 5y agoApple released an app for Android users to alert them if an AirTag is “following” them: https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/android-users-get-this-apple-app-if-you-dont-want-airtags-tracking-you/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/android-users-get-this-appl...
- darkstar999 5y agoIt has to be run manually as far as I can tell.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- nawgz 5y agoSure, but this is clearly better than the situation for other existing technologies which are cheaper and can be used to the same ends. I don’t deny that this behavior is bad, but the anti-Apple sentiment here is a bit strange given they provide mitigations unlike traditional gps tracking companies
- jeroenhd 5y agoThat app requires you to click a button every time you think you're being followed. Then it'll scan and report any results. It won't warn you of an AirTag someone attached to your car, unless you make it a habit to constantly press "scan" all day. AirGuard (https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard) can do this for you, at the cost of battery life for having something scan for Bluetooth signals in the background all day. It's silly and honestly kind of sad that Apple's app doesn't provide this functionality. Perhaps Google should add this functionality to Play Services. They already have an API capable of running Bluetooth background scans constantly in the form of the COVID contact tracing API, so the technology is nearly there already.
- tzs 5y ago> It won't warn you of an AirTag someone attached to your car, unless you make it a habit to constantly press "scan" all day. Wouldn't you only need to scan whenever you return to your car?
- derrasterpunkt 5y agoThere is now an app called „Tracker Detect“ from Apple (for Android) to search for AirTags around you. It hasn’t the ability to use AirTags like on the iPhone but at least you can find one that has been left around you.
- celsoazevedo 5y agoThat app, which isn't available everywhere (why?), requires users to perform manual scans. It doesn't warn users that they're being tracked like iPhones do.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago> which is the majority of people. Depends on where you live. I live in a fairly affluent area, and everyone has iPhones.
- kreeben 5y agoI've been using AirGuard on my Android. It's FOSS. Available on Play. https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard https://github.com/seemoo-lab/AirGuard
- muhehe 5y agoLove this. I'm gonna modify this to scan all airtags around and make them play a sound.
- tuxone 5y agoHas anyone got the same kind of alerts with AirPods 3/Pro? This is a recurrent issue while hanging out with SO, friends and family and the only devices that we believe carrying are those AirPods.
- oneplane 5y agoI think so, it depends on the firmware version and if you activated it as a 'thing' I think. I have one pair that does it and my significant other has one that doesn't but it's not being used as actively and not in Find My either.
- browningstreet 5y agoCost (very low) and ease of use make this different.
- Goz3rr 5y agoHow so? You can get GPS trackers for less than an airtag
- squarefoot 5y agoMost GPS trackers however need a SIM card, which would be traceable.
- oneplane 5y agoTo what? A point of sale? AirTags can be tracked to where they were sold as well in the same way. Some countries might have some sort of construction where you need to provide some form of identification but that only applies to the most obvious avenues to buy a SIM-card for the public. It's not like the shady MFA-farms with the 100-modem appliances are fed by a person actually buying 100 SIM-cards without getting caught or something like that... (and then there is false identification which often is a crime by itself but misbehaving persons might not really care about that) AirTags in this case are just blamed because they are actually detectable by normal users, and that makes it an 'impression' problem, not a new problem.
- diebeforei485 5y agoNo - you buy a burner phone at any convenience store, using cash, pop the sim card out of the phone, and put it into the GPS tracker.
- squarefoot 5y agoGood to know. We don't have burner phones over here, and can't verify, however I thought their SIM cards were locked so that they couldn't be used on other devices.
- happytoexplain 5y agoThe impression most people have is that this is highly available, small, easy to use, cheap, and there is plausible deniability in the intention of purchasing one. Now, there may be other solutions with some or all of those qualities to varying degrees, but the simple fact that the impression is popular necessarily means that it will see usage in cases where the perpetrator would otherwise not have committed the act. In other words, "this isn't new technology" is a true but not terribly relevant sentiment.
- oneplane 5y agoIt is indeed an impression problem. Doing this with LoRa for a lower price has been possible for a very long time and you don't even need a large network for that due to the significant range. Basic triangulation built in to friendly software using existing radios and then simply getting closer with a hand-held transceiver isn't exactly hardcore hacking either. And with the low entry cost and non-detectability by practically any target it's a way worse issue than AirTags or Tiles could ever be.
- RF_Savage 5y agoAirTags are trivial to use and have an extensive tracking network in the form of every iDevice. Custom or semi-custom battery powered LoRa trackers have lesser batteryluve, are bulkier and much harder to get and deploy. Basic triangulation is easy-ish, but requires multiple sites or a moving site to work toany degree. And those sites need to hear the tracking beacon.
- oneplane 5y agoWhat I was writing about isn't theory, but is used in the form of pet and wildlife trackers. Networks already exist. Most of the older ones are usable as well using UHF trackers. None of this is new, it's just that 'the bad guys' mostly get caught using bulky SMS-based GPS location transmitters and now AirTags.
- katbyte 5y agoGo on Amazon and search for 4g gps tracker. Cheap, small, easy, cellular connected gps units with no way for anyone to detect them, unlike an AirTag.
- tomp 5y agoThis is a GPS tracker that can tap into a world-wide Wi-Fi mesh network supported by the richest company in the world.
- jcims 5y agoIn the infosec space at least, commoditization of an attack tends to increase its prevalence.