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Armed with a small GPS device and some hacking tools, the spy sneaks from house to house, tapping into vulnerable Wi-Fi systems and exposing networks that can be accessed with ease.

But this isn't a human testing out the security capabilities of homes; rather, it's a cat fitted with a gadget around its neck to see if pets could hack into Wi-Fi networks.

It might sound far-fetched, but it's a scenario that was played out recently by one security expert, and while its slightly tongue-in-cheek he says that cats could indeed be used as mobile hackers, highlighting unsecure networks in a neighbourhood.

Gene Bransfield in Virginia used a siamese cat (stock image shown) called Coco to hack into his neighbours' networks. The pet was fitted with a device around its collar to seek out vulnerable Wi-Fi. The device included a GPS device and hacking tools and cost less than £60 ($100)

At the Def Con 22 Hacking conference this weekend in Las Vegas, Tenacity Solutions Principle Security Engineer Gene Bransfield will present a rather unusual bit of research.

Titled 'Weaponising your pets: The War Kitteh and the Denial of Service Dog,' Bransfield's presentation will explain how he used a cat and tracking collar to hack into Wi-Fi networks.

'The collar contained a GPS device and a cellular component and would track your cats movements throughout the neighbourhood,' Bransfield explains on the Def Con website.

He also explains that, if the owner gets nervous that the cat might get caught, the GPS device can be used to find the cat and retrieve it.

According to Wired the method used was something called 'wardriving', which involves scouring multiple networks to see how secure they are.

Usually one might expect a hacker to drive round in a car and search for networks and see which were vulnerable.

But Bransfield's method instead fitted a cat with a digital collar and used it as a smaller 'wardriving' agent, something that he has dubbed 'WarKitteh'.

Bransfield will present his findings at the Def Con 22 hacking conference in Las Vegas this weekend. He says that he had no malicious intent but it is does highlight that some people should update their home security settings. Pictured is a team competing in Def Con 17 on 1 August 2009

The device strapped around the cat's neck cost less than £60 ($100) and looked for an older form of wireless encryption that can be easily broken, known as WEP.

The modern WPA encryption, meanwhile, is more secure.

Using a friend's cat called Coco, he was able to find 23 Wi-Fi hotspots and more than a third of them used WEP encryption and thus could be hacked into.

While he insists his research was solely for fun and not with any malicious intent, he explains that anyone could mimic his device with relative ease.

And the method goes to show that if even a cat can break into someone's weak home Wi-Fi network, they should perhaps consider upgrading their security to make it less accessible to hackers.