The next time an unexpected “repairman” cruises past your company’s security desk, you might want to check inside his tin of mints or pack of cigarettes. Especially if he’s also carrying an ethernet cable.
Kevin Bong, a Wisconsin-based security researcher and penetration tester, has developed what he calls the Mini Pwner, a spy computer smaller than a smartphone designed to be inconspicuously plugged into an ethernet port to gain access to a corporate network, feeding information back to a nearby hacker over its wifi signal. Bong sells a kit for the mini spy node for $99, but he also explains on his website how to put one together independently with just a TP-Link router running the open source OpenWRT software, a USB thumb drive, and a battery pack–components that add up to less than $40.
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