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.
Aside from taking out smart devices, law enforcement can also use the robot to communicate with subjects in the target area, and to provide remote eyes and ears to officers on the ground. “NEO can enter a potentially dangerous environment to provide video and audio feedback to the officers before entry and allow them to communicate with those in that environment,” says Huffman. “NEO carries an onboard computer and antenna array that will allow officers the ability to create a ‘denial-of-service’ (DoS) event to disable ‘Internet of Things’ devices that could potentially cause harm while entry is made.”
This roaming robotic jammer was first contemplated after a child sexual abuse suspect used his doorbell camera to see FBI agents at his door serving a search warrant. The gunman opened fire on them from behind the closed door with an assault-style rifle, killing two veteran agents and injuring three more.
Aside from the NEO, the DHS also built the ‘FLETC Smart House’, which is designed to train law enforcement about smart home devices and how they could be used against them. Huffman explained, “A suspect who has been searched and is under the control of officers can cause these actions to happen with a simple voice command which can start a chain of events to occur within a house, such as turning off lights, locking doors, activating the HVAC system to introduce chemicals into the environment and cause a fire or explosion to take place.”
This development shows how law enforcement is catching up with technological advancements. Smart home devices started becoming common in the mid-to-late-2010s, with many users installing them to automate several aspects of their houses and bolster security. So, anyone with a little bit of technical know-how and ingenuity could potentially create a hostile environment using readily available wireless electronics. While NEO might not be able to affect hard-wired smart devices, it would still be able to disable the radio frequencies most wireless IoT devices use, thus reducing the risks for law enforcement officers.
