In this year’s Def Con convention this year showcase had a different twist on IT work. One that merged animals and IT working together. It sounds like a crazy combination and a highly unlikely one that would work well but it did. Gene Bransfield used his friend’s cat, he put on the cat’s color a kit that had Spark Core Wi-Fi development board and had Internet connectivity where ever the cat ended up going.

Now this may sound stupid because cats are going to wander around and do whatever they want to do. But the purpose of the experiment was to see how many people had unsecured, or weak Wi-Fi in their homes. In simple terms who could easily access their Internet just from being on their street.

When the cat was sent out, there was 23 Wi-Fi hotspots found and what they found was more interesting. Four of the networks had been completely open with no security what so ever and four using WEP rather than the WPA-2 standard. The purpose of this was to show that people need to be more aware of the fact that when it comes to Internet you have to have the right safety and protective measures when using the Internet. You never know when a cat or dog with a pack on them will be lurking around to see if you have secure Internet.