Pwnie Express, a company that apparently receives DARPA funding, develops clandestine network sniffers. Disguised as innocuous power strips or transformers, these boxes hide Ubuntu powered computers that contain packet sniffers and keyboard loggers with cellular network connections.

This isn’t a particularly new idea. I seem to remember a computer disguised as a UPS back in the late 90s or early aughts. There was also talk of using gum stick computer powered over ethernet as an inline network sniffer, although I wonder if it would have really worked back then. Still, these types of things always fascinate me, even if they seem relatively straight forward. It’s spy technology! I imagine sneaking into office buildings and secretly installing these either Mission: Impossible &endash; or more likely &endash; Sneakers style (i.e. in plain sight), and then retiring to a delivery van filled with electronic gear and retrieving whatever secrets I was looking for.

Needless to say, I have no use for these thing in real life.

via zdnet