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How To Tell If Your Cell Phone Is Bugged

Posted by kdawson on from the your-shoe-is-ringing dept.

Lauren Weinstein writes to point us to his essay on the realities of using an idle cell phone as a bug, as a recent story indicated the FBI may have done in a Mafia case. From the essay: "There is no magic in cell phones. From a transmitting standpoint, they are either on or off... It is also true that some phones can be remotely programmed by the carrier to mask or otherwise change their display and other behaviors in ways that could be used to fool the unwary user. However, this level of remote programmability is another feature that is not universal... But remember — no magic! When cell phones are transmitting — even as bugs — certain things are going to happen every time that the alert phone user can often notice."

5 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. No content by Nasarius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The "essay" is nothing but speculation with a few facts, no references, and no actual testing or experience. I'm sure this is an amusing blog entry, but why is it on Slashdot? There's nothing to discuss.

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    LOAD "SIG",8,1
  2. Re:Old, old news by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I am completely innocent. I have commited no crimes and am not suspected of committing any crimes."

    I'm sorry, but I cannot accept that anyone can live in Britain today and not commit any crimes. You've never driven over 70mph on a motorway? You've never put recyclable waste in your dustbin?

    There are so many laws in Britain today that you're pretty much a criminal the instant you get out of bed; in fact, you're probably a criminal if you stay in bed all day too. The real problem is _too many laws_, not too many criminals; if the cops stopped chasing people for bullshit crimes with high-tech gadgetry they could get all the real criminals off the streets.

  3. Re:Not a bug by cerberusss · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's not a bug, it's a feature!
    Let me correct your spelling:
    It's not a bug, it's the future

    :D
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    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  4. The real answer to 'who are they'- Bill Collectors by rednip · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Those callers are bill collectors. Mark was (and likely is) a deadbeat (not that there is anything wrong with that :]). By law, or convention (I'm not really sure) they don't talk about Mark's financial problem with anyone else but Mark. The next round of creditors will start automated messages "I have an important message for Mark (his last name), call...", and this will repeat 4 or more times a day. Get rid of that number now, it won't stop.

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    The force that blew the Big Bang continues to accelerate.
  5. Re:I'll try to record the conversations by SQLGuru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's really simple:

    1. Start a pre-paid phone company.
    2. With each new activation, call the new user 10 to 12 times making each call last at least 5 minutes.
    3. User is forced to buy more minutes for the phone.
    4. Profit!

    Layne