What would happen if an unfaithful employee decides to violate his company’s secrets by implanting a microchip to open electronic gates and copy sensitive data and confidential files? Or worse, what would happen with an entire Linux system under its skin capable of passing any security check and accessing the resources of greatest value to a certain company? Technology tells us that all this can be done today.
Thanks to small biological modifications of their own organism, the biohackers are having a series of experiences on the verge of magic. And we are not talking about cyborgs in comics or superheroes with laser beams, but ordinary people who have been implanted with a chip to do simple things like opening a door without touching it, turning on the lights, storing data to always carry with you just by touching a computer.
The enhancement of the human body with biomechanical limbs and organs, radiofrequency chips is already a reality. So now the challenge is to protect them from cyber attacks by discovering their vulnerabilities. Here, Len Noe does just that for his job: he uses the microchips he has under his skin to test corporate defenses. Len is a biohacker which investigates the relationship between the so-called human augmentation and cyber warfare (the techniques and tools of cyber attack) by exploring the ways in which contactless technologies can threaten physical and digital security and thus help professionals like him to deal with this new frontier of technology.
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With half a dozen chips under his skin Len has become a “cyborg” and, in the name of research and the evolution of cybersecurity, he offers himself as an evangelizer who seeks ever new and creative ways to prevent attacks from other cyborgs like himself.
“I’m a white hacker, a criminal who works with the good guys. I spent my life as an offensive hacker to prove that I was better than the defender, but after 9/11 with the advent of increasingly restrictive laws I decided that I didn’t want to spend my life in jail away from my grandchildren. I realized I had skills that I could use in more productive ways. But being a white hacker is not something you wake up and decide to do suddenly one morning ”.
Thus began our interview with Len “RoboPapa” Noe by Cyberark. “I went through various teams, red, blue and purple, it was my environment. I’m used to looking at the position of the cameras, seeing entrances where there are walls, possibilities instead of limits and so I decided to use my skills to help companies understand where attacks that you can’t even imagine may come from ”.
Len has six different microchips on his forearm, wrist and hand. Six different systems with RFID and NFC capabilities and magnets in the fingers.
“Magnets are biosensors that allow me to feel electromagnetic currents. I use them for physical penetration tests – I put my hands out of the building and understand where the current flows are going. Instead, I need two microchips for physical access to technological devices. In this way I am able to take your raw data and turn it into an attack vector: I can intercept an employee badge or enter a restricted access area with my chip saying that the door was open. And even if there is a camera, you don’t understand that I forced entry. Physical security can’t stop someone like me ”.
The point is, there are thousands of people with this type of implant. How do you know what they’re doing?
“I try to understand it this way. There is a type of facility called a wallet where you can put your credit card and pay for the restaurant. It will be one of the most adopted cases and will avoid the social stigma associated with people with implants. Many still use the chips only to open the garage, but it will soon become a government and corporate problem ”.
Isn’t such a new technology scary?
“Sure, but you can use it for security reasons. They have many of the features of cell phones. I have a chip that is a combination of functions that serves as a controller to enter the office or as a badge ”.
By exploring the possibilities offered by these technologies, Len manages to get inside the head of a potential attacker.
“Sooner or later everyone will have to think about the fact that the augmentation technologies will be used by bad hackers.”
E sui Badge Hack?
“Hacking a badge is not difficult. You scan your badge or your digital key with some device and then copy it into your hand. A problem with anything we plan to do with virtual money, digital data and industrial controls. Especially for the contactless payments and keyless cars, those that open to the touch, will be vulnerable to implant attacks. The simpler a thing, the less secure it is. Fleshhook is a type of attack where I ask someone to give me my cell phone. “
I want to show you something on YouTube. Mine is actually a social engineering attack. The chip in my hand points you to an infected website and within seconds your smartphone becomes a spy you carry in your pocket.
“This is why I tell everyone to use multi-factor authentication, a second password, a phone alert, a software or hardware token to protect PCs, secrets and locked doors from an attacker with a chip implanted in his limbs.”
And, since she too is hackable, is that why she wears special gloves to keep the bad guys at bay?
“We don’t have to be afraid of either biohackers or trans-humanists, they represent evolution. In fact, in Northern Europe there are many trans-humanists who preach close integration between man and machine and many have microchips. They have become a political party, that of Istvan Zoltan who, imagining a future of technology-enhanced beings, calls for the pushed integration with technology to defeat death and disease. This is probably in the near future. As long as you remind us that any artificial device can be hacked, including networked biomechanical prostheses “.
Len will be present at the m0lecon in Turin on December 4th.
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