Penurious Penguin writes
"Last year a Slashdot story mentioned the case of Daniel David Rigmaiden, or 'the Hacker.' With the help of an IMSI-catcher device, law enforcement had been able to locate and arrest the elusive 'Hacker,' leading to U.S. v. Rigmaiden. But far more elusive than the 'Hacker,' is the IMSI-catcher device itself — particularly the legalities governing its use. The secrecy and unconstitutionality of these Man In The Middle devices, i.e. 'stingrays,' has caught some attention. The EFF and ACLU have submitted an amicus brief in the Rigmaiden case; and EPIC, after filing an FOIA request in February and receiving a grossly redacted 67 out of 25,000 (6,000 classified) pages on the "stingray" devices, has now requested a district judge expedite disclosure of all documents. Some Judges also seem wary of the 'stingray,' having expressed concerns that their use violates the Fourth Amendment; and additionally, that information explaining how the technology is used remains too obscure. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of ISMI-catchers is their several-kilometer range. When a "stingray" is used to spoof a cellphone tower, thousands of innocent users may be collaterally involved. And while the government claims to delete all gathered data unrelated to the target, it also means no one else can know what that data really was. The government claims that because only attributes of calls — but not their content — are captured in the attack, search warrants aren't necessary."
(More, below.)
Penurious Penguin continues, "The use of a pen-register (outgoing) and trap & trace (incoming) device, requires little more than a mewl of penal curiosity before a court, and no warrant or follow-up on the case is needed. The pen/trap seems unwieldy enough,
as the EFF explains:
"Most worrisome, we've heard some reports of the government using pen/trap taps to intercept content that should require a wiretap order: specifically, the content of SMS text messages, as well as "post-cut-through dialed digits" (digits you dial after your call is connected, like your banking PIN number, your prescription refill numbers, or your vote for American Idol).
intercept information about your Internet communications as well."
Precisely what data these "stingrays" collect will hopefully be soon revealed through such efforts as those of EPIC. It should be noted that the Stingray is one of multiple devices with the same application. The Stingray and several others are trademarks of the Harris Corporation. Some are quite pricey ($75,000), and others are, as mentioned last year by a Slashdot reader, peculiarly affordable — and available. For a more comprehensive overview of the subject, see this Wall Street Journal article."
Slashdot Mirror
Penurious Penguin
Too late for that one...
Secret Stingray
That'll do!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The government is evil.
If 'stingray' is the IMSI catcher MITM device, you can watch these from a defcon demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjYAAmHvt-g
In short, you pretend to be the cell network and pass communication through. The handsets generally don't care or warn the user, you can issue all kinds of instructions to the handsets, it doesn't take a whole lot of gear, and you're now the network before the network.
Problem solved ( for at least one side of the call.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
That was a typo; it is Harris. You are correct.
I have bad momentson' good ones, like some mad vacillating, deliriouson Ferrison wheel.
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
Summed up as
"A government by the people and for the people should not be allowed to keep secrets from the people!" -- Me for the last 8 years.
The problem is that if it is deemed of National Security, they get to redact it. There is no punishment in place that could be applied if they remove it for national security reasons and it is later found to have been for criminal reasons. Example: the fact that a us company paid in tax payer dollars provided young boys for sexual use by Afghan Cops.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2010/12/wikileaks_texas_company_helped.php
Which was classified and thanks to WikiLeaks is now known.
I could care less if the FBI hears me telling my wife I want fuck her brains out tonight while they are investigating a drug trafficker in my neighborhood. The sooner they get him, the less they'll hear me dirty talking with my wife.
Unless they hear you talking about why you hate the government (or a particular FBI officer), of course. Your life could instantly become hell.
I don't know what all mobile platforms there is APIs / permission for this but I do know theres enough information provided from the RIL to be able to detect and track tower data.
Reckon an app could be developed in to keep track of towers in the area and alert users if there are any changes.
It could also crowdsource and mine data to uncover patterns useful in catching anyone using such devices.
"There are many more laws than can possibly be enforced by, or even known to, our ever-growing army of cops, judges, lawyers, and lowly citizens. This isn't an accident of the system run amok, it's the way the government WANTS it. There are at least two reasons for this:
One, the more laws there are to be broken (and the more obscure, the better ) the greater the stream of revenue from fines and violations and the more government jobs there are (cops, health inspectors, banking commissioners, etc.) in enforcing these laws and processing both the violators and the revenues.
Secondly, the fact that since there are probably 1,000 times more laws on the books than are known to the citizenry all but ensures that everyone's guilty of something. And in the government's eyes, it's good that virtually everyone is a criminal of one type or another. Here's why: Because if you ever challenge any part of the government; the Housing Department, the Board of Education, the Bureau of Licensing and Regulation, the Election Board, the DNR, the DMV, the BLM, or whatever, it'll be able to find something, maybe many things, you're guilty of.
And that, my friends, is its insurance policy against you. If you raise a stink about anything, no matter how legitimate, the full force and power of the government could be channeled into crawling up your wazoo with a microscope to find out everything you've ever done wrong and then using those transgressions to either discredit you or to bully you into staying mum about whatever gripe you've got or scandal you could expose. It's nothing but a racket. Blackmail. A seedy bastardization of the "checks and balances" system your nation's founders envisioned and engineered to protect you from governmental abuses".
http://whiskeyandgunpowder.com/everyones-a-criminal-there-ought-not-to-be-a-law/
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
VOIP will protect the data if the content is properly encrypted, but headers and locations are still exposed. The phone can still be identified and located, which is already great information for the police. The IP addresses can be tracked in the header and voila, pen-register services without a warrant. And if VOIP is not encrypted, or if the encryption is weak, even the content can be accessed.
Some things need to be kept secret. For example, the identity of undercover cops infiltrating gangs. But of course, secrecy can also be abused to cover up wrong-doing.
The only way to determine whether or not something should be secret, is to look at it. So we need a third party trusted by both sides to do the looking. They need to be trusted by the government not to reveal something that really ought to be secret, and they need to be trusted by the people not to cover-up something that should be exposed. Sadly, I doubt such a party could ever exist. There will always be some fascists in the government trying to corrupt it, and there would always be some tin-foil paranoids insisting it's all a big conspiracy.
Can't find a link, but 15-20 years ago, Ontario courts ruled that banging your girlfriend in the backseat of a car wasn't public indecency (or whatever else they would charge with for doing it in public, say in the middle of a downtown park), if you were parked somewhere secluded. The ruling went that you had reasonable expectation of privacy by parking somewhere secluded, therefore you weren't accountable if you happened to get busted anyway.
Mentioning this to contrast with SCOTUS ruling people in cars have less expectation of privacy. Likewise, whether I'm whispering in low tones into my cellphone in a crowded room or whether I'm talking normally on my phone with no one visible around me, I expect my conversations to be private and not intercepted in anyway without a warrant.
When all of your wishes have been granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed - Marilyn Manson
If you're not a fucking criminal then you have nothing to worry about.
I am also glad that law enforcement is made up of robots who can be trusted to never abuse private information which, while not illegal, could certainly be used to unduly influence or harm those to whom it pertains.
FBI agents have never engaged in practices using information about private, legal events to coerce or damage private individuals, or to enrich themselves at the expense of others. I am so glad it's not possible that could ever happen, either.