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The $5 Million Surveillance Car That Hacks iPhones From 500 Meters

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WiSpear’s surveillance truck is packed full of spy gear designed to hack mobile devices over Wi-Fi.

WiSpear

A Cyprus-based surveillance company claims to have built a car full of next-generation snooping kit that can infect Apple and Google phones from as far away as 500 metres. WiSpear, founded by one of Israel’s longtime surveillance market players Tal Dilian, is selling the car for between $3.5 million and $5 million and claims it has plenty of interest already. It’s also inspired concern from the privacy community.

The SpearHead 360 vehicle uses 24 antennas to reach out to target devices. Once a phone has been chosen, the WiSpear automobile has four different ways to force a phone to connect to its Wi-Fi-based interceptors from where it can start snooping on devices (using what are known as man-in-the-middle attacks). Then there are four different kinds of malware for various operating systems, including Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android devices, according to Dilian.

He also claims to have access to a range of publicly-unknown Android and iOS vulnerabilities (known as zero-days), which are required for any successful hacks to work on the Google and Apple operating systems. And he says the car can be used to hack devices simultaneously; if a target is sitting in a coffee shop using a Mac, an Android and a Windows tablet, all could be infected at once.

WiSpear showed off the van at the ISS World and Eurosatory conferences this month. As seen in the video below, police can splurge on a drone and a backpack to go inside the car for even more mobile surveillance. Both can be used to carry out the same attacks, according to Dilian, who noted a single backpack can cost as much as $1.2 million. “This takes customers from detection all the way to full interception,” he told Forbes. “I think it’s a game changer.”

When it comes to distance, Dilian said that though his team had successfully carried out an attack from 1,000 meters, he’s telling customers not to expect more than 500 meters in the real world. As for the Wi-Fi exploits developed by the company, Dilian said two of the four available use man-in-the-middle techniques that have never been publicly disclosed and that take advantage of weaknesses in Wi-Fi protocols, which could make the attacks particularly potent.

As it was only launched this month, no orders have been made for the SpearHead 360 thus far. But having spoken to current customers, Dilian believes it’ll sell between two and four before the calendar year is up.

Too expensive for Americans?

But not everyone is convinced of the need for such a pimped out spy ride. Drew Porter, founder of security company Red Mesa, said he wouldn’t recommend it to his law enforcement clients, in part because of the cost. “And only a few police departments could even think about affording this here in the States, which is a good thing for the privacy concerned,” he told Forbes.

Porter thinks vans are simply too conspicuous for truly clandestine surveillance. “This is not to crap on their product, I am sure it is great for the intended target, just too big (as in the size of the van) of an install for my preference and many of my clients would feel the same.” He also couldn’t recommend a product for which the exploit code was kept hidden from the customer. “It’s hard for me to tell its true value,” he added.

Even WiSpear doesn't have total control over the code coming out the van. The spyware types (or “Trojans” in Dilian's parlance) come from four different vendors. Dilian didn’t name those partners, though said any malware maker could jump on board, including NSO Group. The latter’s tools have been uncovered in some controversial cases, none more so than when NSO’s Pegasus spy software was allegedly used to infect a range of smartphones belonging to Mexican lawyers, journalists and activists.

Dilian already has a relationship with NSO: He sold his old smartphone surveillance company Circles for $130 million to the same private equity firm, Francisco Partners, that purchased NSO. They’ve now been merged to form Q Cyber Technologies, though recent reports indicated NSO Group is in talks to be acquired by surveillance giant Verint in a deal valued at $1 billion.

Privacy anxiety

Regardless of the limitations of the SpearHead 360, privacy activists are concerned about the potential for such powerful surveillance on wheels. Edin Omanovic, lead of the State Surveillance Programme at Privacy International, said that while surveillance vendors often overstate what capabilities they have, he was concerned about the use of secret exploits. Such attacks take advantage of vulnerabilities that could be disclosed to vendors, who could then patch and protect all users, if it weren’t for the surveillance companies’ desire to keep their hacks private.

“Hacking for surveillance exploits weaknesses in systems and services millions of people may use. At a time when promoting cybersecurity is becoming a global priority, the very last thing government agencies should be doing is prioritising insecurity by hacking for surveillance,” Omanovic said. “Government authorities concerned about cyber breaches and attacks should be throwing everything at making devices and networks more secure, not less.”

“Capabilities developed in some of the world’s most advanced spy agencies are being traded around the world by hundreds of these types of companies mostly comprised of ex-spooks. Obviously it’s good for them because they get to make money, but around the world we’ve seen surveillance supposed to be used to stop crime instead being targeted against people such as activists and journalists.

“This is hardly surprising—authoritarians are on the rise everywhere, surveillance laws are widely inadequate and rule of law itself is being challenged globally.”

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