1
00:00:00,320 --> 00:00:02,880
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:08,800
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With

3
00:00:08,920 --> 00:00:13,200
Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hey there,

4
00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,120
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. My name's Jonathan Strickland. I'm

5
00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:18,120
Speaker 1: a staff writer here at how Stuff Works. And with

6
00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:22,200
Speaker 1: me is Chris Palette, editor extraordinaire. And we're gonna talk

7
00:00:22,239 --> 00:00:25,639
Speaker 1: a little bit about Bluetooth security. Uh. Bluetooth is a

8
00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:29,280
Speaker 1: very popular technology. It's getting more and more popular every day,

9
00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:33,680
Speaker 1: it seems, uh. And it's one of several wireless technologies.

10
00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:36,960
Speaker 1: It's if you think of wireless technologies on on a

11
00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:40,560
Speaker 1: on a scale basis, Bluetooth is the really close in

12
00:00:40,800 --> 00:00:46,040
Speaker 1: scale we're talking like, then you have WiFi, which extends

13
00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:48,559
Speaker 1: can extend a little further than that, and then you

14
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:52,199
Speaker 1: would have y max, which could broadcast much further. So

15
00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:55,720
Speaker 1: Bluetooth is a sort of your personal little small bubble

16
00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:59,840
Speaker 1: of wireless allows you to connect different devices wirelessly to

17
00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:05,360
Speaker 1: other Yeah. For example, UM, to send ringtones to my

18
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,280
Speaker 1: cell phone, I might turn on my Bluetooth on my

19
00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:10,720
Speaker 1: laptop and turn it onto my cell phone and then

20
00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,320
Speaker 1: send the files over there. You can exchange photos or

21
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,640
Speaker 1: uh send you know, MP three's for your ringtones. It's

22
00:01:18,680 --> 00:01:21,039
Speaker 1: also what you see when you see those little earpieces

23
00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,640
Speaker 1: that people wear in public. They're wireless earpieces. It's the

24
00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:27,320
Speaker 1: piece that connects to your phone, uh and the W

25
00:01:27,520 --> 00:01:31,000
Speaker 1: remote actually uses it to uh communicate with the uh

26
00:01:31,200 --> 00:01:34,400
Speaker 1: the WE game system. So it's it's something you've probably seen,

27
00:01:34,560 --> 00:01:36,960
Speaker 1: although you may not know exactly what it was at

28
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,399
Speaker 1: the time. Right, So if you were wondering what it

29
00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:41,319
Speaker 1: what what those things were that we're making people look

30
00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:46,240
Speaker 1: like cyborgs, uh, that would be the the Bluetooth headsets. Um.

31
00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:48,800
Speaker 1: And also it counts for a lot of people apparently

32
00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:51,200
Speaker 1: muttering to themselves in public when they're actually talking on

33
00:01:51,240 --> 00:01:53,920
Speaker 1: the fountain, right. Yes, it has certainly made me think

34
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:55,480
Speaker 1: that there were a lot more crazy people on the

35
00:01:55,520 --> 00:01:57,480
Speaker 1: streets than I originally thought, and I live in a

36
00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:00,560
Speaker 1: pretty crazy part of town. But turns out that a

37
00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:02,600
Speaker 1: lot of them were just having conversations with their buddy,

38
00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 1: you know, who is a couple of miles away, legitimately,

39
00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:09,760
Speaker 1: not in an imaginary way. So that's that's sort of

40
00:02:09,800 --> 00:02:13,959
Speaker 1: a relief. Yeah. Unfortunately, with Bluetooth, there are some security issues,

41
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,119
Speaker 1: just like there are with other wireless kinds of technology,

42
00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:20,799
Speaker 1: they're just not their holes in there that that can

43
00:02:20,840 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 1: be exploited readily by hackers. Right. The kind of acts

44
00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,200
Speaker 1: like a sort of a walkie talkie in a way.

45
00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:33,280
Speaker 1: You're you're you're sending signals by radio waves and uh

46
00:02:33,320 --> 00:02:35,680
Speaker 1: and if you if you don't have your settings just right,

47
00:02:35,760 --> 00:02:40,080
Speaker 1: you're essentially sending them into the general area. Anyone could

48
00:02:40,280 --> 00:02:44,960
Speaker 1: could intercept them or or start slipping little messages to

49
00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,760
Speaker 1: you with you being unaware of where they're coming from,

50
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,600
Speaker 1: who they're from. You know. That's what that's what That

51
00:02:51,880 --> 00:02:55,440
Speaker 1: brings us to the first topic of bluetooth security. Bluejacking.

52
00:02:55,639 --> 00:02:58,600
Speaker 1: This is this is a sort of more annoying than

53
00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:01,880
Speaker 1: dangerous most of the time. Yeah, Actually, as I was

54
00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: editing this article, I was thinking about doing that myself. Basically,

55
00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:07,560
Speaker 1: what you do is, if you have a cell phone

56
00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:10,680
Speaker 1: that's Bluetooth enabled, you can add a message in your

57
00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,360
Speaker 1: address book like you would add a friend, but instead

58
00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,800
Speaker 1: of adding your friend's name, like if I were adding

59
00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:18,600
Speaker 1: Jonathan to my address book, instead I would add a

60
00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:21,920
Speaker 1: message called you know, how's it going. And then what

61
00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:23,680
Speaker 1: you do is you turn on your Bluetooth and you

62
00:03:23,720 --> 00:03:26,720
Speaker 1: look it tells you who is around you or the

63
00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:28,880
Speaker 1: devices that are Bluetooth enabled around you. And if you

64
00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,360
Speaker 1: could find a phone in there, a lot of them

65
00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:33,360
Speaker 1: look like a string of letters or numbers. May if

66
00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:37,480
Speaker 1: you could find, say, Sony ericson T six ten listed

67
00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:40,040
Speaker 1: in there, you could send how's it going as a

68
00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,840
Speaker 1: contact to that to that phone. And when somebody when

69
00:03:43,920 --> 00:03:46,000
Speaker 1: you look around and you see someone's phone ring and

70
00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,440
Speaker 1: they get this puzzled look, this person gets a puzzled

71
00:03:48,440 --> 00:03:50,360
Speaker 1: look on your face, you know that you've actually blue

72
00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:53,760
Speaker 1: jacked that person with this secret message, right, And and

73
00:03:53,880 --> 00:03:55,720
Speaker 1: of course you could go a little bit, you could

74
00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,120
Speaker 1: have a little more fun with it. Uh. Many of

75
00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:00,320
Speaker 1: the blue jacking sites talk about things like going to

76
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,040
Speaker 1: a mall and just kind of looking around to see

77
00:04:03,200 --> 00:04:06,960
Speaker 1: who has a phone or an earpiece and uh and

78
00:04:07,120 --> 00:04:10,880
Speaker 1: making some educated guesses about what device that person might

79
00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:14,800
Speaker 1: be carrying. Because you don't necessarily know that the devices

80
00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:18,080
Speaker 1: you see listed when when your Bluetooth device to text them,

81
00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:20,320
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily know which ones belonged to which people.

82
00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:22,880
Speaker 1: It takes a little bit of guesswork. But let's say

83
00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:27,440
Speaker 1: you see, uh, someone wearing a Ramones T shirt and

84
00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,640
Speaker 1: you might want to write a little message saying I

85
00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:34,400
Speaker 1: hate punk rock and you send it to that person's

86
00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:36,919
Speaker 1: device and they suddenly get a message that has no

87
00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,080
Speaker 1: identification on it saying I hate punk rock. They know

88
00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:42,279
Speaker 1: someone's looking at them, they don't know who. Kind of

89
00:04:42,279 --> 00:04:45,200
Speaker 1: freaks them out a little bit. Yeah. That, Um, that's

90
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,280
Speaker 1: the security issue obviously. Uh, this isn't that serious. You're

91
00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:51,839
Speaker 1: just getting secret messages and you don't really know who

92
00:04:51,880 --> 00:04:56,040
Speaker 1: your admirer or detractor is. Um, but if you want

93
00:04:56,080 --> 00:04:59,200
Speaker 1: to uh avoid being the person wearing a Ramon shirt

94
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:01,600
Speaker 1: and being I identifiable any wait wait, I just want

95
00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,719
Speaker 1: to make one thing clear. Do not be the person

96
00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:07,679
Speaker 1: who avoids wearing the remote shirts. Ramons are awesome. Where

97
00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:11,200
Speaker 1: Ramon's shirts they're great. Well, there you go. But if

98
00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:13,120
Speaker 1: you don't want to be identified, what you need to

99
00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,320
Speaker 1: do is, if you have a Bluetooth enabled phone, just

100
00:05:16,440 --> 00:05:18,800
Speaker 1: make sure that you don't you know, if you if

101
00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:20,800
Speaker 1: you use the Bluetooth feature, make sure that you don't

102
00:05:20,880 --> 00:05:24,800
Speaker 1: identify yourself in this. You know, don't say this is

103
00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:26,680
Speaker 1: Chris's phone in there, because then they're going to know

104
00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:29,280
Speaker 1: that that's somebody's phone in that. You know, it's available

105
00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,960
Speaker 1: and ready to have a message sentulate. Right. Let's let's

106
00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,880
Speaker 1: move on to some of the more potentially sinister bluetooth

107
00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:42,279
Speaker 1: security problems, one of which would be intercepting messages, but

108
00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:46,840
Speaker 1: another is tracking people and this is actually going on

109
00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:50,239
Speaker 1: in a couple of different places. Um I was reading

110
00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:54,919
Speaker 1: a news story about bath in England. It was in

111
00:05:54,960 --> 00:05:58,520
Speaker 1: the newspaper The Guardian, where the city was using this

112
00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:03,279
Speaker 1: uh this program to kind of track people's movements, not

113
00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:07,839
Speaker 1: in a way that could identify the individuals within the program,

114
00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:09,960
Speaker 1: but just to kind of see where people were going,

115
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:13,320
Speaker 1: what places were most popular. But it raises some some

116
00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,960
Speaker 1: privacy concerns, and uh I remember in the article on

117
00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:21,240
Speaker 1: our site we specifically talk about shopping malls using this

118
00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:24,159
Speaker 1: to kind of look and see which places in the

119
00:06:24,200 --> 00:06:28,040
Speaker 1: mall are the most popular, right right, Well, they basically

120
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,039
Speaker 1: do the same thing. You have an identifiable number or

121
00:06:31,240 --> 00:06:33,240
Speaker 1: name in your phone and you carry it with you,

122
00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:38,680
Speaker 1: then the bluetooth devices would basically have non identifiable information.

123
00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,320
Speaker 1: It's it's actually very much like a cookie on a website,

124
00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:45,360
Speaker 1: because they would say, okay, well, uh j Q for

125
00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:50,919
Speaker 1: ten is going from uh the Apple store down to

126
00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:52,920
Speaker 1: the food court, and they would be able to know

127
00:06:53,279 --> 00:06:57,240
Speaker 1: how much time that that number, you know, spent in

128
00:06:57,279 --> 00:06:59,320
Speaker 1: that particular store and then went down to the food court,

129
00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:00,960
Speaker 1: and they spent another hour down there, and then they

130
00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 1: went down to uh to the department store on the

131
00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:05,359
Speaker 1: other end, it's spent another hour and there they would

132
00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:07,760
Speaker 1: know that much about you, but they wouldn't know your

133
00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:10,760
Speaker 1: name and an address or phone number or any of

134
00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:13,960
Speaker 1: that information, because it's not the same. But it is

135
00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:16,320
Speaker 1: a little weird to think that people could be watching

136
00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,040
Speaker 1: you as you go from place to place right there.

137
00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:23,160
Speaker 1: And there's some people who still still assert that it's

138
00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:28,360
Speaker 1: at least possible that eventually you could be identified by

139
00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,600
Speaker 1: this information. It would not be easy, and there's not

140
00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:35,200
Speaker 1: really much incentive for anyone to actually go through that

141
00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,120
Speaker 1: trouble to do it. But the fact that there may

142
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:40,360
Speaker 1: be some potential for that has a lot of people worried.

143
00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:43,320
Speaker 1: I mean, you're talking about a privacy thing. I'm sure

144
00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:47,680
Speaker 1: are are. Coworker Josh Clark would be upset if the

145
00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,520
Speaker 1: shopping mall had identified that he had gone in and

146
00:07:50,560 --> 00:07:55,800
Speaker 1: out of Victoria's Secret fourteen times. That's probably true and

147
00:07:56,480 --> 00:08:01,680
Speaker 1: completely believable. Yeah, I'm not getting into that, um, normal,

148
00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:03,880
Speaker 1: I get into why so many people in England used

149
00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:08,280
Speaker 1: the phone in their bath. No. Yeah, alright, very cute,

150
00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,760
Speaker 1: but seriously, it's not like this identify. This information is

151
00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 1: really personally identifying, and they would have to go to

152
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:19,680
Speaker 1: a lot of trouble because, as you pointed out earlier, UM,

153
00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:23,880
Speaker 1: Bluetooth is a very short range mode of communication, so

154
00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:25,920
Speaker 1: they would have to have whoever is tracking you would

155
00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:28,720
Speaker 1: have to have sensors, a lot of sensors, like every

156
00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:32,760
Speaker 1: twenty exactly, in order to to effectively track you. So

157
00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:36,360
Speaker 1: we're talking about a system that is not effective as

158
00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:40,640
Speaker 1: far as tracking individuals, and you know, for anything like

159
00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:44,480
Speaker 1: an intelligence agency that's concerned with terrorism, for example, you

160
00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,680
Speaker 1: would have to blanket entire city areas with tons and

161
00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,920
Speaker 1: tons and tons of sensors and uh and it's just

162
00:08:50,960 --> 00:08:54,800
Speaker 1: not practical. It would it's too expensive, The infrastructure would

163
00:08:54,800 --> 00:09:00,200
Speaker 1: be uh, pretty complex. So on a scale of one

164
00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,640
Speaker 1: to tend, Bluetooth security is probably on the you know,

165
00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:08,120
Speaker 1: three to four range. Just for your own personal information. Now,

166
00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:11,520
Speaker 1: it is possible for people to use bluetooth to to

167
00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:14,520
Speaker 1: hijack your phone. It is possible for people to get

168
00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:17,880
Speaker 1: access to your information. Um. Again, it's not an easy

169
00:09:17,920 --> 00:09:20,720
Speaker 1: thing to do, but it's it's possible. So you definitely

170
00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,440
Speaker 1: want to be careful about when you're using those Bluetooth

171
00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:27,400
Speaker 1: capabilities with your devices. Um, if you're going to be

172
00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:29,400
Speaker 1: in an area that, uh, that has a lot of

173
00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:31,240
Speaker 1: hackers in it. For example, let's say you're going to

174
00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:33,800
Speaker 1: a hacker convention, might not be the best time to

175
00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:38,480
Speaker 1: enable all your Bluetooth devices. That's true. UM. Honestly, the

176
00:09:38,480 --> 00:09:41,800
Speaker 1: easiest way to avoid any of this is to turn

177
00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:45,920
Speaker 1: your phone or other Bluetooth enabled device to uh. You know,

178
00:09:45,920 --> 00:09:48,320
Speaker 1: it'll say whether you're discoverable or not, that sort of

179
00:09:48,320 --> 00:09:51,720
Speaker 1: Bluetooth jargon. And if you just turn it off, you

180
00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:56,080
Speaker 1: make it non discoverable. Then it's uh, it's impossible. Your

181
00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:59,040
Speaker 1: the power is down, um and no one will be

182
00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,960
Speaker 1: able to do that. And it saves battery life, you know,

183
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:04,320
Speaker 1: because if it's got that radio signal going the whole time,

184
00:10:04,679 --> 00:10:07,720
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's draining your battery. So there there's

185
00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:11,040
Speaker 1: another advantage to it right there. Well that's pretty much

186
00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:14,240
Speaker 1: the inside skinny I guess on the whole Bluetooth security issue.

187
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,840
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you say I'd say so. UM, if you'd like

188
00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:18,679
Speaker 1: to read more about it, we've got a couple of

189
00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,280
Speaker 1: articles for you. We have what is blue Jacking, which

190
00:10:22,440 --> 00:10:26,400
Speaker 1: is the article about blue jacking and sending secret messages

191
00:10:26,400 --> 00:10:29,920
Speaker 1: to people, and then how Bluetooth Surveillance works if you're

192
00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:34,960
Speaker 1: more interested about the cobrat clandestine world of bluetooth security

193
00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,320
Speaker 1: and um those are available right now on how stuff Works.

194
00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:42,120
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. For more on this and thousands of

195
00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:45,640
Speaker 1: other topics. Does it how stuff works dot com Let

196
00:10:45,679 --> 00:10:48,320
Speaker 1: us know what you think. Send an email to podcast

197
00:10:48,559 --> 00:10:54,720
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by

198
00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:58,240
Speaker 1: the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you