A security flaw means the location of devices used by police, potentially including undercover officers and those travelling home, is visible to anyone with a phone or laptop.
  • Phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    12·
    26 days ago

    “I think it comes down to either incompetence or laziness … it just seems like the engineers who developed this were either ignorant or incompetent,” he said"

    Nah, I’m sure the engineers knew, or were too incompetent

    As per usual, it’s management who pushed for such tight development schedules that they didn’t have the time to do it right while at the same time offering so little money they could only attract idiots who only know half of what they should.

    I fucking guarantee you that is the core of the problem

    • GreenBeard@lemmy.caEnglish
      3·
      26 days ago

      Standard operating procedure. Every engineer knows the old rule: On time, On Budget, Done right; pick 2. No one ever picks option 3, public or private.

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    26 days ago

    Couple of sensationalized things. Undercover cops aren’t carrying a body cam or taser. That would be easy to spot in person.
    Next bluetooth is short range. You gotta be decently close. Like 25 feet give or take.
    Commentary, of course the company was lazy. It costs money to add the feature to rotate mac addresses.

    • MangoCats@feddit.itEnglish
      1·
      26 days ago

      Ordinary bluetooth 25-30 feet in ordinary conditions, up to 100’ or more “in the open.”

      Using a high-gain directional antenna, a Bluetooth “base station” can detect and identify an ordinary consumer device (like a smartphone or earbuds) at distances ranging from 175 meters to approximately 450 meters (1,476 feet) under optimal line-of-sight conditions.

      So, if you’ve got a “secret meeting point” you could conceivably setup checkpoints on all the access roads and detect police travelling along those roads within 200-300 meters OF THE DETECTOR - the detectors can be setup miles from the meeting point…

  • echo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    26 days ago

    How is it able to get the latitude and longitude of the devices? As far as I’m aware, the bluetooth spec doesn’t provide coordinates as part of its metadata. And you’d need some kind of triangulation method otherwise. I’m certainly not able to get the coordinates of my bluetooth devices. Wish I could, would make finding the remote a lot easier.

    • Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      2·
      26 days ago

      You can get RSSI and guesstimate the distance. Since it’s on a phone, you have the phones coordinates.

      If the objects are moving in relation to each other, you can attempt a rudimentary triangulation. Its error prone, but you don’t need 100% accuracy.

      I worked at a startup where we built industrial grade “apple air tags” and used phones to locate objects. This was like 10 years ago nowadays.

  • Samsy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    11·
    26 days ago

    Didn’t read, is he dead? The term “tried” makes me anxious.