MIT researchers devise IoT transmitter to stop hackers

NEWSBYTE Researchers at MIT have created a transmitter that could stop hackers from attacking IoT devices. Such devices are vulnerable to hack attacks that locate, intercept, and overwrite data, and jam signals, according to researchers working on the project. One method that can be used to protect data on IoT networks is frequency hopping. This sends each data packet, containing thousands of individual bits, on a random, unique radio frequency (RF) channel. This makes it difficult for hackers to trace individual packets. However, previous iterations of this method have typically slowed operations down to the extent that expert hackers are still able to mount successful attacks. To combat this, the MIT researchers have developed a transmitter that hops frequencies for every bit of a data packet each microsecond. They said this is fast enough to thwart even the quickest and most sophisticated attacks.