The “ethical hacker” who created the Bluetooth “signal sniffer” being used to try to track Nancy Guthrie’s pacemaker said he created the high-tech tool specifically for the search for the missing matriarch — and that he is now creating an app.
David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec, said the sniffer, which has been attached to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department helicopter hovering over Tucson, Arizona, has a range of up to 800 feet.
The renowned “ethical hacker” and former Marine who conducted cyber missions for the National Security Agency told The Post that he knew he had an opportunity to help after it was revealed that the mother of “Today” show co-host Savannah Guthrie had a pacemaker.
“When this whole Nancy Guthrie case came out, law enforcement said that her pacemaker had disconnected from her phone, which would indicate that she’s using one of the newer brand pacemakers that have Bluetooth connectivity,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy had previously worked with pacemaker companies to test their ability to withstand hacks, ensuring that no one can “drain the battery or cause it to short circuit,” he explained.
“From there, I wrote a software tool that specifically looks for Bluetooth low-energy devices,” the tech whiz continued.
“Bluetooth has a very low transmit power. But with signal amplifiers, high-gain antennas, and what are called software-defined radios, we can really increase the range that we can see that information can transmit to it.”
Through his testing, Kennedy was able to hook a Bluetooth sniffer to a drone and scan for devices up to 800 feet away.
Kennedy then contacted law enforcement and arranged for one of his colleagues to travel to Pima County, Arizona, to aid in the search for the 84-year-old.
Bluetooth communicates at around 2.4 gigahertz, the same as other wireless devices.
In a perfect world, with no obstructions and a clear line of sight, Kennedy believes the sniffer could detect a Bluetooth-enabled pacemaker up to 5,000 feet away.
But every obstacle — such as the pacemaker being inside Nancy, along with any possible walls behind which she is being held — shortens the effectiveness of the sniffer, Kennedy said.
“A Bluetooth low-energy device only has about what’s called a 10-milliwatt transmit power, which is about a 30- to 35-foot radius. Now you might be wondering, how do you get 800 feet from that? Well, we’re not trying to communicate in a two-way relationship with that device,” he explained.
David Kennedy, formerly of the NSA, explained his project to The Post.CNBC
“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to create a massive bubble of energy that is propagating our signal outward as far as we can so that we can hopefully hit that 30- to 35-foot bubble. It’s how far we can reach to actually hit those devices, which is why it allows you to get to that 800-foot radius,” Kennedy added.
The TrustedSec founder tested the sniffer by holding a Bluetooth device in his armpit to ensure it could reach — and is convinced it represents one of the best hopes of finding Nancy.
“What this sniffer does is it’s only looking for the physical address of Nancy. There are a million devices out there that use Bluetooth. We want to home in just on Nancy,” he told The Post.
“So it filters out all of the noise. If it gets close enough, it can do what’s called active scanning, where it tries to communicate with that device and then get more responses back from it.”
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