back to article Former NSA cyberspy's not-so-secret hobby: Hacking Christmas lights

In 2018, Rob Joyce, then Donald Trump's White House Cybersecurity Coordinator, gave a surprise talk at the legendary hacking conference Shmoocon about his hobby. As the former head of the NSA's Tailored Access Operations squad – the people who crack systems and gather intelligence for the US government – Joyce was also the …

  1. Blazde Silver badge

    "that's not really allowed in the UK"

    No kidding. 98.5 FM - that Rob uses - is smack in the middle of Radio 1's fat range. You'll have an angry Greg James at your door if you smear your Xmas songs all over his Xmas songs.

    Appreciate the interview. This is one of those hobbies I enjoy other people spending vast amounts of time on :)

    1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

      Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

      He could stream it on an open wi-fi network!

      1. Blazde Silver badge

        Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

        Bluetooth! (for the greater technical & usability challenge)

        1. Martin an gof Silver badge

          Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

          Auracast.

          M.

          1. Colin Bull 1
            Unhappy

            Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

            It looked really good - until the last bit -Tap to PAY !!

            1. Martin an gof Silver badge

              Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

              You don't have to pay. It could be revolutionary for hearing aid users (perhaps finally unseating the 100-year-old induction loop, and I'm looking at it seriously to replace my infra-red systems) but...

              ...but, there is hardly any actual kit out there to buy, even two (three?) years after the specification was standardised.

              M.

              1. Roland6 Silver badge

                Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

                Little surprised Apple (iPhone) isn’t on the product list, given it seems to be the GoTo platform for the various hearing aid/implant vendors, who are on the list.

                1. Martin an gof Silver badge

                  Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

                  There was an occasion when one particular manufacturer only made an iOS app, and only one phone could be registered to an aid at a time. This was so obviously useless for a: those who either couldn't or didn't want to buy in to the Apple ecosystem and b: parents of aid-wearing children, particularly as they got older and also wanted to control the things themselves that they were very quickly informed of who the actual customers were and (I believe) now the app works on Android as well, and you can register three or four phones for control.

                  Then again, I'd prefer it if there were ways of doing this which did not need an app...

                  M.

          2. Jamie Jones Silver badge
            Thumb Up

            Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

            Multicast Bluetooth! Nice! I'd never heard of that!

    2. herman Silver badge

      Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

      The Christmas neighbour from hell.

    3. Jamie Jones Silver badge

      Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

      When I was about 12, I did that to jam the radio of my neighbour who was in her garden blasting crappy pop songs from the era (the awful 80's)

      Though that would have been the AM broadcast, not FM

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "that's not really allowed in the UK"

      I'm in the UK and I use a 10mW FM transmitter to pipe music into various rooms in the house. It's illegal all right.

  2. FuzzyTheBear
    Happy

    Best joke ever :D

    " I'm from NSA. I know how to keep a secret. " Snowden anyone ?

    1. Bebu sa Ware
      Coat

      Re: Best joke ever :D

      «" I'm from NSA. I know how to keep a secret. " Snowden anyone ?»

      Knowing "how to" and "doing so" are fortunately not quite the same thing.

      Not sure whether the chap is daft or just eccentric in the best British tradition but at least mostly harmless and doubtless brings enormous Yuletide joy and delight to the young and not so young of his community

      The lavish house decoration with Xmas lights is fairly recent in AU probably occurred only after the advent of cheap led lights. Those with incandescent bulbs were often wired in series and plugged directly into the 240VAC mains so not really for outdoor use. The ones running off transformers 24V (?) were quite expensive I think.

      I am surprised that a manufacturer hasn't incorporated a controller/interface for a low speed serial protocol like 1-wire into the leds and power supply which could make these dynamic displays a lot easier to implement.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge
        Angel

        They have

        The most popular is probably the WS2812B chip, which is an RGB LED with a built-in driver.

        The chain is basically a shift register, data is clocked in at one end and each chip extracts the three bytes it needs, then passing the rest on regenerating the signal.

        The trouble with these is that the protocol is very susceptible to noise, so runs between chips have to be kept very short, perhaps five metres at most. So the data run from the controller to the base of a tree is usually ANSI E1.11 or E1.31, then a protocol convertor.

        There's a variety of similar chips using the same or similar protocols.

        1. John Sager

          Re: They have

          The string I have has 100 lights on a 10m string. Unlike the WS2812 the data line doesn't daisy-chain - it's connected to all the lights in parallel. I still haven't worked out how they tell each light what position it is in the string. It looks like they manufacture the string in long lengths & cut off 10m or 5m etc for sale so it needs to be one-time-programmed later.

          My first driver was a Pimoroni Pico 2 plus with a single WS2812 as a level shifter. That complained about driving the string after a day or two so I've changed to a Pimoroni plasma 2350W. Sadly the wireless bit doesn't work yet but the level shifter is plenty beefy enough to drive the light string.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          "Steam Illuminations" at the Watercress Line/Mid-Hants Railway

          The chain is basically a shift register, data is clocked in at one end and each chip extracts the three bytes it needs, then passing the rest on regenerating the signal.

          I believe that is the technique used for the Mid-Hants Railway's "Steam Illuminations" trains, designed by Simon Horn, a lighting engineer, when he's not playing with trains!

          Behind the scenes/setup

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QfbqDNwP_c

          After dark...

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dM46Wn0fkwg

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heV4DrlC03A

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7WmqB7u2uU

          BBC News article

          https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0ewgye5y3do

  3. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Happy

    I have this mental image

    of a Chinese manufacturer being teased by his colleagues because all he makes is LEDs, and they only sell at ten for a cent... ah but, he replies, every year I see a hundred bilion...

    1. Colin Bull 1
      FAIL

      Re: I have this mental image

      I was involved in customer support for a UK LED "manufacturer" that had problems with their off the shelf stock control system that no one foresaw because of 4 byte integers. I was once taken to task for complaining that a customer only had 12 invoices on their system for the whole year. I soon learned that they made assembly lines for car manufacturers and each invoice was for multi millions.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is my festive, ice-covered house.

    I call it my Snow-Den.

    When the thaw comes, Snow-Den leaks.

  5. The commentard formerly known as Mister_C Silver badge

    Can != May != Should

    I said "I think I could do that," meaning I have the technical chops to achieve it. And [Joyce's wife] said, "yes you can," and I took that as license to mean, "yes, you can do it."

    And that's the root of the data slurping explained.

    1. deadlockvictim

      Re: Can != May != Should

      «Can» equals «may» in the same way that peanuts are nuts.

  6. Marty McFly Silver badge
    Facepalm

    "Hacking" Christmas lights

    Not the story I expected it to be. I thought the NSA folk were actually "hacking" Christmas lights. Setting some rando's lights to rapid strobe level flashing, or something devious like that. I did not expect a legit story about setting up synchronized Christmas lights.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Hacking" Christmas lights

      It's absolutely trivial.

      These systems are close relatives of SCADA - wide open, with no electronic security whatsoever - which is why they don't use Wifi or connect it to the Internet.

      Some might find it surprising that home enthusiasts have a greater understanding of the limitations of their systems.

    2. C R Mudgeon

      Re: "Hacking" Christmas lights

      It being the NSA, I was envisioning more along the lines of planting bugged bulbs on the nation's Christmas trees, in hopes of picking up secrets divulged in less-than-sober moments.

    3. ITMA Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: "Hacking" Christmas lights

      "Hacking" has become one of those much over used terms to the point it has lost its original meaning - rather like "hologram".

      To me, "hacking" (in IT/electronics terms) has always been getting something to do something it wasn't designed or supposed to do. Putting something together to do something as in this article, to me, just is not "hacking".

      Rather like those awful "life hacks". They're not "hacks", they are suggestions/tips.

      Re. "holograms" - just because an image "appears" 3D or to "float in air", it does NOT make it a hologram.

  7. JWLong Silver badge

    Check Out

    Dave Plummer on YouTube, he loves doing this stuff.

    Warning: He's an EX-Microsoft hack, but got out before the turd-chase started there.

    1. ITMA Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Check Out

      I like Dave Plummer's channel - really interesting stuff there.

      I think a better way of describing Dave would be "ex-Microsoft developer". Which is how he describes himself.

      Just for context, for a very long time - way before computers existed - in the UK describing someone as a "hack" was a shorthand term for "journalist/reporter" e.g. "He's an Evening Standard hack" usually of mediocre (or lower) standard.

  8. Graham Cobb

    Just stop flashing!!!

    I would make do with just being able to tell my cheap chinese Christmas lights strings (for my Xmas tree, outdoor trees, draped over the garage, etc) to come on without bloody flashing!!

    They all seem to be similar - they have a controller built into the power plug and (mostly) have a remote control. Either switch can be used to cycle through a variety of annoying patterns. But there is no way to set the startup to be my desired pattern (actually just on - no flashing, fixed colour).

    I would be happy to have something that could either replace the power supply/controller or the remote control. Including a timer (so I could replace the mains timer I use for each string) would be even better.

    Anyone know of any such gear?

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Just stop flashing!!!

      Pop the lid and it'll probably be obvious how to disable the flashy.

    2. AndyMTB

      Re: Just stop flashing!!!

      May be overly obvious - but most lights manufactured in the last few years have a built-in timer. Turn them on at,say, 4pm, choose your wave/flash/steady pattern and then just leave to their own devices. They'll turn themselves off after 8 hours and come back on after 16 hours - ie 4pm - with the settings you selected earlier.

    3. Martin an gof Silver badge
      Flame

      Re: Just stop flashing!!!

      A colleague bought 10 identical strings of lights for work, from the same supplier at the same time. Outwardly they look identical, but while nine of the strings come on when you apply power using the same settings you used last time - possibly weeks ago - one string always comes on at "flashing mode 1" and requires seven firm pushes of the button to get it to steady state.

      From the top of a ladder.

      Some time later, same colleague bought another dozen or so strings of lights for another area. These blasted things do not come on at all until you climb a (taller) ladder and press the button seven times.

      This is why whenever I buy lights for home, I buy the type which does not have a little module to make them flash, and why I was cross when my wife decided this year she needed another set of lights for outside, too late for me to order them from CPC, went down to ASDA and bought a flashy-flashy set which has to have the button push done, every flippin' time we turn them on, and as the button is in a waterproof box that is a pig to open, that turns out to be a job that isn't often done.

      M.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Just stop flashing!!!

        A much easier solution - don't buy the ******** things.

        We have neighbours who seem to compete to see who can have the gaudiest setup. Luckily, their houses don't face ours, else we'd need a blackout blind for our bedroom window.

        Regards,

        The Grinch.

  9. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Been used as a trope in a Charlie Higgson novel

    Where the hero uses them as trojan horse into the villains network. * I didn't think it was real.

    Kind of looks like it isn't.

    *Interesting plot. Bad people doing bad things for good motives. Bad people finding out there are worse people. Good people doing bad things for good motives.

  10. ComicalEngineer

    Displays like that make me want to hack the system with a set of wire cutters.

    Or, being creative, with a large EMP.

    Bah, Humbug ;)

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      For the nay sayers...

      You clearly don't have neighbours who leave their decorations up all year round. It is bloody annoying to have fairy lights going blink-blink in the middle of summer.

      Wire Cutters.... Now that is a 'definitely maybe'.

      1. PRR Silver badge
        Alert

        Re: A senior person ...

        A senior person in the NSA: "I don't want to be on the roof in bad weather and wind."

        > neighbours who leave their decorations up all year round. It is bloody annoying .

        Every year we get a little more senior. More trouble with ladders, cold, ice, foot-tangles. A decade ago I was leaving the upstairs lights up all year, the price had got so low I didn't care if they blew off (one is trying). Last year we left the downstairs string up. I have been taking down the little bit over the entryway, but even that's getting painful.

        1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

          Re: A senior person ...

          The [redacted] in question here is under 40 with three kids. Being senior does not come into it. I'm close to twice his age and clean my gutters of pigeon crap every year.

  11. UnknownUnknown

    Offensive

    For such a selling smart guy, I’m not sure what’s more offensive - working for Trump, or thinking this cheap Chinese tech tat all over is house is anything other than pissing all over the environment.

    The irony of someone from the NSA with all this insecure Chinese tech is not lost on me. Hey it will have a tariff on from Jan 10 so probably double the price soon.

    His pronunciation of the work solder is odd too. Regional thing ?

  12. Jim Whitaker
    Black Helicopters

    The neighbour from hell. At least for a few days.

  13. harmjschoonhoven

    EMP

    @ComicalEngineer

    Use a Marx generator - I have experience and bad memories.

  14. Someone Else Silver badge

    "Sign in to prove you're not a bot"

    Not fekkin' signing in to YouTube, or any other Google service.

    Harumph and Bah, Humbug! grumble...mutter...

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