Ride the Lightning

Designers Create Faraday Cloak to Block NSA and Cybercriminals

June 24, 2014

Ars Technica reported last week on the latest fashion item (a Gandalf-like cloak) designed to foil the NSA and cybercriminals.

Readers may recall that Edward Snowden famously asked visitors to store their phones in a refrigerator – not as silly as it sounds since even phones that are powered off may still be "listening."

So perhaps it is no surprise that Austrian design firm Coop Himmelb(l)au has made a cloak that looks very much like a large Snuggie made from a comforter that also happens to block radio signals.

It is officially known as the CHBL Jammer Coat and operates as a kind of Faraday cage and uses "metallized fabrics" to block radio waves and tracking devices that might, for instance, lift credit card information from RFID chips. It does occur to me that wearing such a cloak might instantly make you a surveillance target!

Hat tip to Dave Ries.

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