A Noob's Intro to Biohacking, Grinding, and DIY Body Augmentation

thank you so yeah you got the right room if you came for biohacking from a new perspective if you're looking for expert opinions and knowledge i'm sorry that that's over at defcon in a few days um this is a good intro for it anyway yep as he said my name is doug copeland my friends call me cooper i'm a i'm a student at wgu studying computer science specializing in network security i'm co-host of a podcast that sometimes talks about security called saha says it's available on itunes and podcasts feel free to subscribe and tweet us and give us a give some comments some people you know don't even know that we have a podcast for saha

as they often like to comment anyway yeah like the title says i'm a noob with this i got implanted in january at biohack con in austin so i've only had a few months to play with it but i'm already having a lot of fun figuring i'd share some the fun i'm having and yes i am actually still job hunting a volunteer sysadmin not getting paid for it i'm doing it just to keep my skills fresh give me something to do while studying at wgu anyway let's go ahead and jump into it what do you think when you think cyborg i don't know i often think and just want to go up to this gentleman here and

say you're close i need them unfortunately i couldn't get fully into that role you know orange is not my color sorry anyway cyborg is a fictional term it came about in the 60s by a couple of guys biohacking it's kind of like the movement the method grinder is actually the actual person you know kind of like with hacking you've got hackers and crackers and biohacking you have grinders it's not the app so if you're looking to come and learn about the app i'm sorry i know nothing about it no crossover and uh yeah really this is not something you really want to do by yourself at home save it for adulting with uh people that

know what they're doing and can keep things clean because you know often enough these devices are powered by lithium batteries and if we've you know if you have checked out on youtube you know with fun hoverboards and other things are powered by lithium batteries they can be punctured damaged explode fire i don't want that in my body that's why i don't have any lithium ion batteries inside not until they get it a little bit better just a little bit magnets yeah the the best ones are pretty expensive and they're coated in like gold some of the worst ones are coated in hot glue i know about you but hot glue isn't a really good biosafing material in my

opinion it's just my opinion i used to be a firefighter emt and there's certain things i'll put in my body on my body crazy glue is one of them but not hot glue because you know chemical cauterization totally different and uh of course i mentioned keep it clean much like this talk i'm going to try and keep it clean very little french will be used and let's go ahead and let you know give you a couple examples of some of the leading grinders this guy neil he's from the uk totally designed this apparatus to help him um experience a world being born colorblind it allows him to hear color amazing ted talk about it and the most fun about it is right here

he can scan your face and then give you an mp3 about it so i when i got to meet him at the biohack on i really wanted to scan my face because that would be an awesome ring to it it's like you know best thing put that on loop it probably is annoying because it's just tones but it'd be really unique but i definitely suggest taking a look at cyborg nest for because he's also got information about the north paw which is an implantable that will tell you basically where north is so if you're one of those people it doesn't have a decent sense of direction i highly suggest it that way you might be a little bit less lost

maybe google maps over apple maps definitely otherwise you might end up in antarctica anyway this is a another individual she is very brave very much so cutting edge very much so um radical in her approach um does it very much so on the budget what have you i'm trying to be very um careful as far as how to express because a lot of what she does is you know and makes her end up in the hospital and it concerns me because you know i you know i would stress doing this not by yourself with with help what have you but a lot of what she has done it gives a lot of really good information

but just needs a little bit in my opinion just a little bit better materials what have you just to just keep yourself safe there's another individual i met as well and he's actually the his company is the one that produced the implants that i have i like to point out that he has a really good ted talk as well where he just gives you just a basics as far as the movement where you know where it's going or where it is now for the most part and where it's been because the guy's been doing this for over a decade you know just really good information and actually he'll be at defcon talking as well and and in implanting

people as well so let's go ahead and do the math i went to biohack con i originally just went just to check it out ended up getting conned into helping with av met the guy with dangerous things so he had uh fun little devices size of green rice and i went up just to talk to him to get some more information for the podcast saha says and find out a little bit more about it and one of the interesting things i you know said is i do martial arts i used to be a firefighter i'm very active putting a glass shard in my hand sounds a little bit dangerous to me i don't really like shrapnel i don't

know about y'all it hurts it causes damage it's like well when we're originally beta testing it we stuck it in a you know in a chicken you know they got from grocery store completely thawed then put in a hydraulic press and turned it into butter the device actually survived the chicken did not so key thing to remember on that is you might lose your hand but you'll still have the device so yeah i went and i asked them so um okay put my hand out and then i saw the needle oh boy did i see the needle and it's it's kind of big it's a you know if you've ever had a cartilage piercing it's kind of similar to that

kind of pain kind of not a little bit more and uh since also it's this type of product doesn't have like a bio adhesive on it it moves around until the body stabilizes it something to keep in mind but also it makes it easy for upgrades so if they come out with a new one that does that much more just cut a little slit and pop it right out but yeah not the most fun i've had on a saturday afternoon but anyway at least uh i'm hoping nobody really had a big breakfast if you did a little late but look away yeah i totally forgot to warn you if you have a weak stomach don't look at the

screen a little later so now that i'm implanted what now does my hand go bad do i have to cut it off and get a chainsaw and fight the forces of evil but i have one in each hand that is there a video game like that and maybe i need to make one but two chainsaws it doesn't make me very popular in public anyway so yeah a little uh a little reference from stone cold here got two of them now give you a little hint nfc off enough that's what you do with your with your cell phone rfid that's like the hid cards that you you know use to get in and out of stuff

i'm not going to give you the full definition so you sit there and read it real through real quick wikipedia can do that so much better than me but anyway so uh you know i'm still in progress on since like i said i got in january i'm working on a doing keyless start for my motorcycle and car because i don't know about you i don't like to carry a lot of stuff around just one more thing i can lose so it'd be great to i would have loved to have you know shown a video of you know me keylessly starting my motorcycle turns out i need to rebuild the carburetor so it would have been a funny

video it's like tap it it tries to turn over but then it just but i figured i'd save that for later anyway yeah often enough it's you know if you do a lot of work um with churches would have you end up with a million keys but the keyless start was working it was just something unrelated definitely it's called you let it sit too long and then you have to pull the carburetor off soak it in gas take it apart put it back together again or you just have your buddy spray carb cleaner in it while you start it and pray he doesn't set your foot on fire we're not going to show that video today

maybe maybe later if you give me whiskey i might let's put it this way stop drop and roll does work and also since i'm job hunting i always run out of cards i had 100 yesterday i have none today but i still have the chip in my left left hand right it's my business card but also since i'm interested in network security interested in red teaming is there an application here i can use it just made me think now so right hand like i said doors what have you makes it really easy it's re-recordable what have you so here's here's the easiest way to you know incorporate it into your motorcycle doors what have you

it just depends on what your budget is because this is like 20 25 bucks dangerousthings.com really really easy to use and that's what i have on my motorcycle i want to get another one for my my previous one day but here's some nice little tip from friends with uh longhorn locksport because i asked him about you know quality of locks on a panasonic or no samsung lock and they led me on to this one here security snobs very much so fun especially since you can actually use the rfid tag and a pen so it's two-factor i like two-factor i wouldn't mind having it on my house and if i really you know also got a backup

of a key too so technically it could be called three factor but i'll go with the two myself that way i don't have i have one less thing to carry around so you know like i mentioned earlier electric electronic business card in my left hand you know it's got my name email cell phone number link to my online resume or does it so yeah my sense of humor is a little bit off as you if you haven't already noticed but you know potential job interviews it might be kind of fun to see if they have a sense of humor if they don't if they just stone cold you and just be like why i don't know if i really want to work

for them but you know this is not uh talking about the red team aspect i saw these two videos i want to give them credit because they they're the ones that gave me the original idea after i got the chips of what do i do with this now because that was like the first thing my wife said when i came home she was like okay you got this how much does it cost what are you going to do with it and what were you thinking great wife right but yeah bishop foxy made a great great open open source hardware device called rftastic thief so i went ahead and built it and here was my generic plan for it you know

everybody uses the these often enough everywhere to get in parking garages or the workplace so i'm going to use this fun little device from dangerous things to see if it's high or low frequencies so if i can scan it and then encode it to my left hand or if i need to then figure out how to encode it to my right hand well from the capture and you know this is generic pictures of it and there's the encoder here that also got from dangerous settings for the low frequency and of course and up on the hand so that once i get in if i get caught which hopefully their security is good enough during the during the pen test then i

can be like and they'll get me to empty out my pockets would have you it's like i don't have anything no lock picks no card nothing just keys and my wallet and they're like what are you doing went to the bathroom just looking for a bathroom man how'd you get in here door was wide open i don't know what you're talking about what do you mean you have security here but you know here's a card scanner in action should be a video due to technical difficulties apparently it's a still picture but when you put the card up to a scaling point okay maybe it's just slow whenever you put the card up to the plate it then goes uh on the right or

left letting me know if it's high or low frequency but anyway here's my build of it i started out with this tiny little uh uh antenna it's cheapest thing i could find uh instead of like five six hundred bucks on ebay i found one for 20 and i was like sweet i can get started got it built uh what have you and but found that range was terrible like i even uh the regular just plain id cards i'd almost have to be just like mr robot and walk up to the coffee shop and try hump the badge with my bag because the thing is so tiny but we're not even going to talk about you know the key chains

or the actual implants that that was that was just ridiculous trying to get a good read so then i got lucky found that four times the size full messenger bag size antenna got lucky on ebay some guy in south austin was going out of business and even met me at starbucks i didn't have to wait to ship it so got that unfortunately much like a pen tester i know thanks to the found that key chains still are a pain to get a decent read and implants are as well so that makes me feel better about using it for my own doors and it's harder to get a read but still those id badges worst thing ever

i can unlike the depiction and mr robot i could have sat at the coffee shop table and just pointed in the guy's general direction and got a got a good read not walk up there and be like hi how's it going i'm just here to tip the guy no idiot but so what's next am i you know i've already done some fun stuff where am i going with this next what other than just building out more ways to have fun without keys well the dangerous things has a encrypted payment system chip coming out this fall i'm i got lucky and i'm getting a beta of it so i'm going to get to actually learn about encryption and see if i can break

the thing and we'll see we'll see how good it is definitely going to let them all know one way or another if and then also try and get some other friends that are so much more gifted at encryption than i am to see what they can come up with too because it's fun so breaking things can be fun the other one is uh basically just just like my left hand but it's a flat polymer instead of the glass tube main reason for that is to have a much better read and range which can be a little makes me a little bit hesitant about sniffing it but to give you an idea of the difference between a flat and a

cylinder grain of rice earlier was the one that i have this one's basically a beta build of it to try and match the readability of just this flat little thing that glass tube i could not put in the web of my hand that would have to be in my arm and i don't know it's just a little bit too big for me i'm thinking i'll bump into bump into things like i normally do shatter it and then yeah won't end well so yeah but i'm hoping to pick uh pick up the regular one like my left hand over at defcon later this week unfortunately i have to wait on the payment system one until this fall then

i will definitely see what goes on there but anyway this is what i have for you today i want to thank you for coming out it's my first time at b-sides talking first time in las vegas please don't throw me in a pool later but if you want you know conversation questions what have you this is a short version of information that i could have given you since i only had 20 minutes i've got more information if you want feel free to hit me up on twitter what have you and yes that's a tattoo i have as well at the bottom but yes thank you for coming out thank you doug we do have time for

questions uh you can just raise your hand for questions okay do you have the nfc chip for the rfid chip i have both okay do they have any interference with each other no because different frequencies yeah about the nfc chip is a high frequency rfid is a low frequency so different applications different uses how difficult is it to reprogram them uh how much can it store that kind of thing basically you know the nfc one is compromised how bad is it in order to i'll flash it with a different code if you're talking about the well the more advanced one is my left hand it can hold just a little bit of data it's very basic stuff basically like a link

and then simple text to identify what's on there my right hand which is basically like the the key it's just a string of numbers not much at all on there it so it's it's very limiting but the application on how you use it is where it becomes fun uh good morning interesting talk um on the slide yet about from defcon 2015 bishop fox what was the reference that was just under that it was black wing black yeah black wing intelligence i think so they were talking about it they promised uh using implants for uh red teaming see if i can get this to work okay cheese thanks i can bring it back to you or

just hit me up on twitter i can send it to you that's yeah what is your twitter cooper zero p three r underscore seven

love technology they're like intelligence okay anyway if i can actually get this to work that'd be nice

it's just my nickname or handle underscore 7 is my twitter make it easy that way

on the implantables do you know with that large gauge needle is that usually a disposable or is that one of uh is that still in the re in the you have to resterilize reuse it's a disposable i would not suggest any needles even you know even if you happen to be diabetic never never clean and reuse it because you know it's too easy for contents inside to transfer other stuff that you don't want in your body and that goes with all needles not just implants

right they have disposable