Why send in a human when a cat can do the job? The answer to that question was resoundingly answered by security engineer Gene Bransfield, the inventor of WarKitteh, a device for cats that looks like a collar but actually packs advanced technology that detects unsecure WiFi connections.

WarKitteh essentially amounts to high-tech equipment that turns “feline companions into scouts for WiFi hackers,” according to Engadget.

Bransfield’s device consists of a Spark Core board that maps wireless networks and assesses their security, with that information being passed on – at least in theory – to a hacker eager to access a vulnerable network.

Bransfield deployed WarKitteh on a cat named Coco, who over the course of three hours discovered 23 wireless hotspots, according to Wired. More than a third of them were either open or used less secure WEP instead of WPA encryption.

Bransfield combined his technology with a collaborator’s program using Google Earth’s API. He told an audience at DefCon conference that many of the WEP connections were Verizon FiOS routers left in unprotected default settings.

As ominous as it may appear, WarKitteh is nothing more than an innovative project meant to turn heads at a Defcon panel.

It’s also meant to be a reminder to cat owners that their beloved pets may be used as spies, so securing a home’s wireless access point is the over-arching point.

Bransfield’s feline outfitted with WarKitteh wandered in the neighborhood and exposed weak security or no security at all in neighbors’ wireless networks. These vulnerabilities could be as harmless allowing people to “borrow” wireless networks or as sinister as spying and obtaining sensitive information.