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Comment by r00fus | Hacker News Reader

Impressive. Now how do we defend against malicious use of this POC?

This is what I use: YShield RF Shielding Paint - 5L Bin - HSF54 - Blocks Wifi, Smart Meters, Cell Phones, Etc. https://a.co/d/csJJslD

good lord. that's cool, but wow would that be expensive. did you only use this on the exterior walls of the house? how much primer did it take to get the paint to match the rest of the walls? also, what about windows?

I did it inside my bedroom, ceiling and all walls because we are fairly close to a cell tower. The rf meter I have went from 3000-5000 down to 7-10. I can't type the symbols in my phone for the units. Better sleep for sure since doing that a couple of years ago.

Windows we used film, curtains shielded too. Two coats primer. Put copper stripts to ground as well on walls before paint. Didn't do floor so some rf gets in and out which is ok actually, you can create a focusing effect if you aren't careful about it.

Do you sleep better because you're not on your phone so much? I've heard that you should avoid screens in bed.

I don't seem to wake up as much in the middle of the night

so what is it about radio waves that you feel is disrupting? my only reference to this is the Chuck McGill character from Better Call Saul

Oh man, that's a rabbit hole. I always slept better at my parents cabin. They eventually got wifi and I stopped noticing any difference. Then tried an emf shielded top and it worked really well. Then did the paint on the walls of bedroom.

If you want science, it's tough, nobody is going to fund it and it's harder and harder to find a control group.

There's studies of dubious quality if you Google emf and sleep.

A couple questions —

Could you link to the film you used, and also the curtains?

Did this at all block your ability to use your own cellphone?

It was a 3m film, the curtains were just emf fabric sewn in the back of regular curtains and they block the light more. And yes, Wi-Fi and cell still work, we left floor untouched. I can no longer pick up neighbors Wi-Fi in that room. My neighbors are about 150 m away, rural. I turn wifi off at night in my house.

How well does this work? Always sounded to good to be true to me.

The paint itself probably works well if it's conductive - it's just a simple Faraday shield. The problem is with testing. For example most Faraday pouches and bags turn out to be snake oil upon testing, as they let the signal out through some discontinuities, even though the mesh itself works perfectly and most of the time you don't have the signal.

Do I sense a future asbestos-like scandal brewing here?

What evidence are you basing that on?

I would start by not building your password out of giant metal letters.

How else am I supposed to keep track of it?

I was thinking of plain old spying by identifying presence of people, perhaps enough characteristics to determine who it is.

Noise/Jamming. Signal/Timing Spoofing. Environmental Spoofing. Also anyone using it paints a giant target on their back. These are all true of any active signal imaging system.

Somewhat related but I always thought a cool warfare device would be a grenade that contains an inflatable "soldier" with a built in heat signature. Toss them around for IR imaging spoofing.

Anyways..

Leave the microwave running

Wouldn't you need two microwaves for each axis (XYZ), facing opposite direction? So six microwaves in each room. You have to remove the door switch because you need to leave them running 24/7.

let's not be silly. just put it in the attic so each room is covered centrally. you may need a higher wattage microwave though.

Mine is around 800w. Would a single 1600w be as good in the attic centre as two 800w evenly spaced?

This all makes me wonder on the efficiency of the original idea. if you have 6 microwaves oriented in each of the directions of an XYZ plane, there would be the assumption that the coverage would be radiating out so there are no gaps in coverage. You could then rotate the rig, but that gets complicated for all 3-axis to rotate. But if you're rotating, then why not just one for each axis. Also, is the axis pointing at the ground even necessary to radiate?

So now we have to consider the wattage of a rotating system, and how fast does it need to rotate so the time not directly being radiated doesn't cause gaps in coverage. There's a lot of variable to cover here.

Build a detector which can differentiate from normal traffic and a "scan" like this.

Wire up an RPI to a motor which reorients a 2.4ghz parabolic dish, first discovering the direction and elevation which best picks up the signal from the "scanner". Then, engage the old microwave emitter you've hooked up to the dish.

You will like as not fry their equipment. Bonus: the attacker may never have children.

That's the best part of it: the technique seems to be passive.

Fry everything then.

Tinfoil

Ask the Amsish

i don't think being unaware protects you.

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