The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it has developed a four-legged robot designed to jam the wireless transmissions of smart home devices. The robot was revealed at the 2024 Border Security Expo and is called NEO. It is built using the Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV) and looks a lot like the Boston Dynamics Spot robot.

According to the transcript of the speech by DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) director Benjamine Huffman, acquired by 404 Media, NEO is equipped with an antenna array that is designed to overload home networks, thus disrupting devices that rely on Wi-Fi and other wireless communication protocols. It will thus likely be effective against a wide range of popular smart home devices that use wireless technologies for communications.

  • femtech
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    395 months ago

    Might be time to hardwire my doorbell camera.

    • @[email protected]
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      165 months ago

      Yeah I’m glad you brought up the doorbell. Once the jammer dog is jamming, it’s impossible to ring most doorbells and choose the polite option. It’s 110% murderville from that point onwards.

    • @SpaceNoodle
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      35 months ago

      I keep forgetting to do this. I just upgraded my panel, time to pull another cable …