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Comment by driverdan | Hacker News Reader

If I wanted to do something like this I'd create open WiFi access points called something like "DeadDrop". They wouldn't be connected to the internet. Instead they'd forward you to a locally hosted site that let you download and upload from local storage.

WiFi has a lot of advantages. You eliminate the risk of USB attacks, physical damage to the device, and the actual location is unknown. The downside is that it would require power.

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The Pirate Box[1] firmware is the perfect thing for this. The problem is finding power to keep the box running, but with wifi, you can hide the box somewhere out of site.

I have always thought it would be cool to set up a piratebox somewhere running from a solar panel. Then in daylight hours the dead drop would be there, but it would be gone at night.

[1]: http://piratebox.cc/

There's an Android version in case you have old smartphones lying around. They're more powerful than the OpenWRT routers and they do have their own power. You need to root your phone first though.

http://piratebox.cc/android

Except it's a beacon that screams "Hey I'm over here" to everyone in a 90m radius.

That's why you set up a few dozen small radios as a neighborhood meshnet.

And then you have a few dozen small radios screaming, "Hey I'm over here" and a greater chance of being recorded when setting them up.

Radio direction finding is well known and easily performed. The location may not be immediately obvious, but a knowledgeable person could find it without much difficulty.

I wonder if you could use Bluetooth Low Energy instead of WiFi as the power saving can last years. iBeacons have the potential to last years on a single battery. Probably not ideal for transferring large amounts of information though.

You could make the data available elsewhere in encrypted form and use the Bluetooth device to distribute the key and the URL where the data can be found.

The downside is that it has to be powered.

I've often wondered about how much power it would take to run a wireless SD card (enough to be solar powered?) and how the software could be extended to allow uploads.

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=117&cp_id=11709&cs_id=...

See previous commentary: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6195627

That's a pretty interesting idea. It would be easy to power them via solar. I couldn't find power specs for WiFi cards but it seems typical SD cards run on 3.3V up to 300mW, but newer high speed cards can draw up to 3W. A small panel could easily handle that.

Relevant: http://ldln.co/#howitworks

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