BLOG: No LOL’ing matter: Cyber ‘war kittehs’

Combining the Internet’s love of cats and lack of concern for data security, one cyber researcher has come up with an adorable, furry way to show silly humans that their Wi-Fi connections can easily be hacked and potentially misused. If you’re confused by this blog post’s headline, “kitteh” is Internet for “cat.” It may seem pointless to actually add letters to a word as a form of shorthand or a nickname of sorts, but much of the Internet is, indeed, pointless.

However, the Internet is also where we all keep some fairly important information and as security researcher Gene Bransfield explained during a Defcon speech (video here), a not-insignificant number of people take no pains to properly secure their Wi-Fi connections from lurking hackers, digital miscreants, and/or roaming neighborhood cats.

Cats? Yes, cats. Bransfield noted that 15 percent of all Internet traffic is devoted to cats. Cat pictures, cat videos, cat memes. In fact, he found that even among techy crowds, his speeches and presentations prompted more daydreaming than rapt attention — until bolstered by a few well-timed pictures of cats. After an audience member offered up a cat collar outfitted with a GPS tracker, Bransfield realized that he could add a Wi-Fi “sniffer” and have an instant “war kitteh.” He equipped his elderly mother-in-law’s cat with such a device and set Coco the Cat free to prowl after mice AND nearby unsecured networks.

Bransfield found far more open Wi-Fi hotspots and unprotected networks than he felt should be available in this cybersecurity climate. While cat combat isn’t likely to take off as a viable form of cyber warfare, the experiment reveals a certain lackadaisical attitude toward security. Given the heightened attention toward businesses’ privacy and security practices, it seems as though the public cares about their data when someone else loses it — not when they themselves open the digital cat-flap to every curious kitty.