Now drones are being used to expose bank details, passwords, wi-fi

News that hovering drones can now steal passwords from unsuspecting phones will do little to ease fears that the widespread use of unmanned aircraft could infringe upon our privacy.

Hackers in the US have managed to ‘steal’ information, including Amazon passwords, bank details and even people’s home addresses using an aircraft.

While it might sound like the crime of the century, the exercise was an experiment to show it is possible to use drones to tap into a smartphone’s Wi-Fi settings and access valuable information.

The drone, known as Snoopy, seeks out smartphones that have Wi-Fi turned on.

It then makes use of built-in technology which can see what networks the phones have accessed in the past.

In theory, almost any drone could be adapted to do this.

Phones ‘noisily’ reach out to networks, according to the experts.

Snoopy looks for this activity and when hovering nearby it emits a signal masquerading as another network.

The phone ‘trusts’ that it is accessing a trusted Wi-Fi network but instead connects to the quadcopter’s network.

Snoopy can then intercept everything a smartphone sends and receives and allows skilled hackers to see passwords, bank details and the phone’s location.

The test was conducted in London and the group will share their findings at the Black Hat Asia cybersecurity conference in Singapore next week, CNN reported.

The drone, known as Snoopy, seeks out smartphones that have Wi-Fi turned on.

It then makes use of built-in technology which can see what networks the phones have accessed in the past.