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Comment by morpheuskafka | Hacker News Reader

Putting on my black hat for a minute, it seems that LoRaWAN would be a great way to further "improve" these little pests. GSM is going to leave records that are a subpoena away, with LoRa you control the base station, it claims miles of urban range, and it's spread spectrum so the signal source can't easily be traced. Uses next to no power when not transmitting.

Also, I wonder if there would be a way to enclose virtually all of the pump in metal so that the card reader would be RF shielded and removing the shielding would cause a noticeable change in appearance.

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Wouldn't you buy a prepaid SIM for cash in a convenience store, and use its internet connection to send the data to some server in a jurisdiction that doesn't respond to such subpoenas?

bingo

Could still trace the point/time of sale and pull security footage. Additionally, the authorities and the telcom could work together with a bank to generate a honeypot card, send it by SMS, and then track usage to identify members of the network.

Maybe. IMHO much easier to give a homeless guy $20 to buy a SIM card for you than to get a homeless guy to mail order an obscure radio module on Digi-Key for you :)

How traceable is buying through Aliexpress? I bought a couple of LoRa modules there last year.

Probably depends on what bank you used. Western banks are generally very cooperative with LE. Offshore, much less so

The financial side isn't hard to hide - buy a prepaid card online with cryptocurrency.

The delivery address gives you away though. Either you or one of your associates is going to have to be in a specific place at a specific time to sign for the package.

Could still trace the point/time of sale and pull security footage

Have you seen the security video that comes out of most convenience stores? You can't even make out people who rob the place at gunpoint.

90% of convenience store surveillance cameras make Ring doorbells look like tools of the NSA. (In terms of image quality, not the other way.)

In some countries it's no longer possible to buy prepaid SIMs anonymously. You can buy prepaid SIMs, but they need to be activated online, with a government issued ID.

Thus the need for a signal (from whisper systems) replacement that's not tied to a sim.

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