LORA

Matt Knight, software engineer and security researcher at Bastille, introduces LoRa and low-power wide-area networks. LoRa operates in the 900 MHz band with a custom chirp spread spectrum modulation, giving very long range at low power and cost, but making it invisible to existing IT monitoring. Its rapid enterprise adoption in building control and HVAC monitoring, combined with its newness and proprietary nature, means undiscovered vulnerabilities likely exist.

Key Takeaways

• LoRa is a low-power wide-area protocol operating in the 900 MHz band with custom chirp spread spectrum modulation
• Its custom modulation makes it invisible to existing IT monitoring appliances
• It delivers very long range while staying frugal with battery and cheap to implement
• Rapid adoption in building control and HVAC, plus its proprietary newness, means likely undiscovered vulnerabilities

Video Transcript

My name is Matt Knight. I'm a software engineer and security researcher at Bastille. And I'm going to talk about LoRA and low-power wide-area networks. LoRA is a brand-new wireless protocol that is taking the IoT by storm. However, because it operates in the 900 megahertz band and uses a custom modulation, it is invisible to existing IT monitoring appliances. LoRA uses a custom chirp spread spectrum modulation to get incredible performance. It offers very long range while still being very frugal with battery and very cheap to implement.

Applications where you may begin to see LoRA in the enterprise include building control and HVAC monitoring. Because of its unique capabilities, LoRA is being rapidly adopted. However, because it's new and proprietary, there are likely vulnerabilities out there that we don't know of yet today. To learn more about LoRA and other low-power IoT protocols, please visit bastille.net.