05. September 2021 5 min read

Hacking master plan excerpt about planting Raspberry Pi

I wrote a book about Joncy Ber robbing a bank. Since summer is over, so reading on the beach is replaced by the evening before sleep reading in the bed, Hacking master Plan remains something that will keep you engaged for some time (even though it is a thin book). Here is a taste of how Joncy Ber plants devices for his elaborate bank heist on the two banks in Hong Kong.

Walking down the Queensway, I was able to get into the local telecommunications shop where I bought pay-per-use SIM cards for GPRS modems. After that, I walked into a local restaurant for lunch. I loved Chinese cuisine and ordered some noodles. I had time to think, and I decided to place the GPRS hubs behind the climber plants in the park. I already planned to put the RaspberryPi devices in the plant pots closer to each of the buildings on the park’s edges, but the GPRS hubs would be much safer if they were hidden in the thick leaves. The distance between the pots and the climber plants was small enough for the Wi-Fi to cover, and they seemed like perfect hiding places, even for a long time. The noodles were delicious, and with a full stomach, I went to the nearby shopping mall where I picked up the worker’s uniform that I had ordered online. To avoid suspicion, I went to the toilet there, where I got dressed. On the toilet, I also installed the local SIM cards into the GRPS modems and connected them to the RaspberryPis that acted as a hub and exposed the whole network of other Wi-Fi sniffing RaspberryPi devices to the internet. Nobody noticed the change I went through, so in the end, I walked toward Chater Garden and Lambeth Walk Rest Garden, posing as a public worker checking the plants. I walked from the sidewalk, past a small strip of grass toward the big tree right next to the overpass. I used my hands and a small screwdriver to dig a small shallow hole near the roots of the tree. I placed the first RaspberryPi device in the hole and covered it with dirt. I noticed the people walking over the overpass. Then I glanced at my mobile phone and saw that there were many wireless networks in the vicinity. Next, I walked a bit further toward some elegantly trimmed bushes that lined the low hill. I dug a shallow hole among them and placed another RaspberryPi device in it. Once I covered it with dirt, the device was well hidden. I knew from the Google Street View photos that the palm trees in the center of the park were a bad hiding place. They were bare at the bottom, and they only had a small patch of soil exposed around them before the curb and walking surfaces started. However, there were some Agave plants at one side of the park, which provided a lot better cover. I put the two devices among the Agave plants on each exit at that side of the park, so that even if maintenance watered the plants, they wouldn’t be able to spot them.
The device mesh was placed and powered. I used my mobile phone and a commercial Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect through the Tor network and get the initial analytics from the whole system.

To read how Joncy Ber came to Hong Kong and what did he do afterwards, checkout my book Hacking Master Plan - Learn hacking tips and tricks at Amazon. And post a review if you liked it, or comment here for a direct debate of possible flaws.