Inspiration
Cybersecurity is paramount in fostering sound computer networks and systems; it encapsulates many things from protecting our data from cyber attackers who would wish to steal this information and cause harm. Sensitive data, personal information, governmental and industry information, intellectual property, and many other media of delicate information are always at risk, and CounterRaid is designed to address such fears.
What it does
CounterRaid is an anti-theft application that sends real-time data on a stolen laptop by SMS/MMS. It can be activated by sending a text message to a Twilio number. Once activated, CounterRaid will take the current IP address and locational details of your device, in addition to taking a picture through the webcam. From there, it will actively send SMS messages every two minutes containing logged data of what has been typed on the laptop. The purpose of this is to check if any passwords or other various forms of private information have been accessed.
How we built it
CounterRaid is built using the Python programming language. Twilio was used to send and receive SMS and MMS messages. The library opencv was used to retrieve webcam images, and pyimgur was used to upload them to the image-hosting site Imgur. Ident.me was used to fetch the external IP address of the confiscated device, and ip-api.com was responsible for obtaining the geographic location and ISP for said device.
Challenges we ran into
Twilio has a minor yet significant shortcoming: attempting to send MMS cannot be done through localhost, and must only be done via a public address. Images cannot be efficiently and reliably queried through Twilio as it will require an image-hosting service that is in the public domain. This was the motivation for using pyimgur, a third-party library for uploading images using the Imgur API.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are impressed with our resolute dedication to finishing this project within the rather short time frame allocated. Additionally, we are proud of the thorough logging capabilities of the application.
What we learned
We learned about many of the various API’s used in the project, their limitations, and how to work around them. Furthermore, we learned to understand the importance of tracking data, and using retrieved data to its fullest potential. After countless assignments done at university, usually at a lower level, it was surprising to see how this field has developed to providing higher-level solutions to complex problems. We realized that we cannot always be trying to reinvent the wheel, rather build upon it to make it better. That said, finding sensitive information such as IP address, location, and webcam pictures was very easy since most of the functionality was provided by third-party libraries and APIs. We can conclude that although we tracked some user data, larger-scale applications are definitely collecting more, and thus hopefully using it to fortify our understandings.
What's next for CounterRaid
Seamless integration across all kinds of devices is the next step for CounterRaid. The current limitation of this application is only facilitating phone-to-desktop setup but providing a common interface across most commonplace devices (e.g. phone-to-phone, smartwatches, etc.) would be the next logical step. Streamlining image uploads is also a critical issue at this moment, as sensitive information is relayed through Imgur.
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