Given that a lot of us leverage Zigbee and Z-wave for home security, I was curious if there has been much thought or discussion regarding adversaries using jamming devices for these 2.4ghz based devices. I recognize that channel hopping/spread spectrum being the main means of mitigation, but was curious what the community’s take on it was, and if there is anything we could or should be doing to protect our home automation.
Not really. I mean where I am may be very different from were you are but where are you having to worry about this?
If you’re close enough to my home to successfully jam my 2.4ghz network I guarantee I have a camera on you. (and it’s not 2.4) you need tk be more concerned about ME finding you…
If you have an antenna powerful enough to intentionally jam signals and I can’t see you on my camera then you’re jamming signals intentionally near a US military base with questionably legal gear and I’ll let the FBI and the FCC take care of it.
I am honestly more worried (and by worried I’m more co cerned about a hangnail at the present time) about the rf signals I get off the base from NATO milspec radios that have at more than one time screwed with my garage door opener. That just needed me to rotate the codes on the garage door opener remote.
You shouldn’t have problem with that garage door with a more modern opener, but I can see that with older models without rolling codes.
Where I live, there are known gangs that steal cars and ship them to Africa. There have also been articles in the US for thieves jamming wireless security devices (such as wireless cameras and the like). Putting these together, I wouldn’t put it past a thief to try jamming techniques.
Anyway, regardless of the how or why, it’s a very important question as many people rely on wireless cameras as well as general wireless devices for home security. You can most certainly jam over a significant enough distance without being spotted. There have been white papers about mitigating the denial of service vulnerability for zigbee radios, but never amounted to mass production of the proposed solution.
I believe that the zwave 500 controllers will change status from “Alive” if being jammed. Pinging a wifi device will detect wifi jamming.
A sophisticated thief will be smart enough to burgle an empty house. Anyone interested in anti-jamming should perhaps first consider a sophisticated mimicking that someone is home but not answering the door. Especially now that cameras can reliably detect humans outside the house many clever deceptions can be implemented.