On Public WiFi? Your News May Be Hacked (VIDEO)
Meet Newstweek, a hidden device engineered to hack news items being read at public WiFi hotspots (cafes, libraries, airports, etc.). Both nefarious and tech-saavy, the ingenious mechanism wasn't fathered by a group of web hackers, but rather a pair of Berlin artists, Julian Oliver and Danja Vasiliev. The duo are interested in exploiting the "trustworthiness" of big media outlets in order to demonstrate the vulnerability of relying on just a few dominant networks.
In short... potentially terrifying.
Oliver and Vasiliev explain the project's intent:
"We created this project to raise awareness as to the increasingly network-dependent reality of modern times; that far too much trust is placed in all the hardware and minds that deliver the content that eventuates in the browser. Even without devices like Newstweek there are a vast number of people along the chain of delivery - from people working at ISPs, to those working at large infrastructural switches and even at the origin of the data itself - that have a tremendous amount of power to manipulate the browser-delivered reality widely accepted by readers."
Below, a more thorough demonstration of the device. To see the manipulation of a BBC News article, skip ahead to 04:45.
HowTo coming soon! We'll keep you posted.
Via WARNING: On Public WiFi? Your News May Be Hacked on WonderHowTo.
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First Posted: 02/22/11 11:42 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:35 PM ET