Hudson Toth
Former AACC student Justin Donson explains how to use a high-tech device called Flipper Zero at a campus event on April 17.
A former AACC computer science student was on campus Thursday to show students how to use the Flipper Zero, a multi-function tool that could replace a home’s TV remotes and key cards and other devices that operate with radio waves.
At the hybrid event in CALT attended by about 20 people, Justin Donson, who works for technology consulting company ClearEdge in Annapolis Junction, described the Flipper Zero as an “electronic Swiss Army knife.
“It doesn’t do any one thing well,” Donson said. “But … you can buy stuff that allows you to extend its capabilities.”
Donson also said the safest way to use a Flipper Zero is for users to limit its connection to devices they have legal access to.
“A general rule for lock-picking is you don’t pick a lock that you don’t know and you don’t pick a lock that you need,” Donson said. Similarly, he advised students not to use the Flipper for hacking devices that don’t belong to them.
Donson gave participants some hands-on experience with a Flipper Zero. They used it to change the color of an LED bulb in a lamp, for example, and to copy a key card.
“I would definitely be more careful on where I’m leaving my phone or where I’m leaving certain keys or things that can emit certain signals that can be captured,” Mahammad Tofeeq, a second-year cyber security student, said after the presentation.
Maynard also said higher-security items, like car keys and credit cards, are safe from a Flipper Zero, because the radio waves they send out constantly change. So while the device can copy a signal from a key fob, the signal will already be useless by the time the hacker would try to use it to start the car.