Mobile Devices Banned From UK Cabinet Meetings Over Surveillance Fears

MightyMartian writes "British securities services fear foreign intelligence agencies have developed the ability to turn mobile devices such as phones and tablets into bugs without the owner's knowledge, allowing them to eavesdrop on confidential meetings. According to the article, UK security services fear China, Russia and Pakistan have figured out a way to turn mobiles into microphones, and have them transmit even when they're off. Ministers in sensitive government departments have been issued with soundproof lead-lined boxes, which they must place their mobiles in when having sensitive conversations."

Comments

Cone of SIlence

[Zaelath]

Do we really have to Max?

Re:Cone of SIlence

[93 Escort Wagon]

Before the meeting, just be sure and tell Hymie to "kill everyone's phone" - problem solved.

Re:Cone of SIlence

[Big Hairy Ian]

Unless you're holding you're meeting in a Faraday Cage I can turn a pair of old Sony Walk-man Headphones into a listening device without even touching them. It's not difficult.

Those evil Pakistwanians.

[queazocotal]

The Scowge of Dewocracies.

Summary Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

And what the fuck is Pakistway? Is that near Stalinstan, or Armeniad?

-- Ethanol-fueled

Re:Summary Huh?

[jc42]

And what the fuck is Pakistway?

If you google it, you'll find that most of the hits are for exactly the text you just read in the summary. It doesn't seem to originate with /., though; that sentence is taken verbatim from a news-service report. /., like other news sites, has just posted the original article unchanged.

There is a pakistanway.com/net site, a portal website in Pakistan. The reporter that wrote the quoted article might be a regular user of that site, and garbled the country name as a result.

Re:Summary Huh?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

And what the fuck is Pakistway?

Sounds like a newfangled name for the Silk Road (the original one).

Pakistway

[davidwr]

Is that anywhere near Norstan?

Good Lord!

[Austrian Anarchy]

British securities services fear foreign intelligence agencies have developed the ability to turn mobile devices such as phones and tablets into bugs without the owner's knowledge, allowing them to eavesdrop on confidential meetings.

This is positively ancient. Just so happens the elected officials are finally beginning to use the precautions that have been used in the military and other corners of government for quite some time.

Good old Pakistway!

[Anonymous Coward]

The land where editors are actually competent!

Ever been in a SCIF ?

[mbone]

They won't let you take phones in there, either, for the same reason. And they haven't for decades now.

Re:Ever been in a SCIF ?

[AHuxley]

The US and UK at a mil and police level knew what happens. You had crime tracking fail as the criminal community had total insight into their countries larger telephone networks and the domestic computing power to track all calls.
You had different NATO groups, NSA and factions in the cell networks of different NATO countries over the years via junk software.
If the contractors, police and mil can get in, so can anyone with the cash, press contacts or any other gov backing.
Once telco codes and methods are shared, passing via many mil, police, govs, 'trusted' contractors its just codes for sale.

Re:Ever been in a SCIF ?

[Eunuchswear]

A mate who worked for the MOD and he said that when he buys a new phone he had to buy one without a phone

So what brand did he buy? Fisher-Price?

A summary of all Old/New Tory Cabinet meetings

[Joining Yet Again]

Prima: Right, who's paying us?
Secunda: Fotherington-Smythe Plc.
Prima: And what do they want?
Secunda: For HMRC to look the other way on their offshore banking; more unpaid labour via the Work Programme; an overseas meeting to drum up some business; hm, and they want to get into private healthcare work, so perhaps you could force the NHS to put some work out to tender?
Prima: OK, gentlemen, let's do it. Don't forget to ask GCHQ to send them any intercepts which might be of use to them. Tertia, prepare the speech.
Tertia: "Enterprise.. bla bla... hard working people.. bla bla.. austerity... bla bla... " hmm, growth.. nah, don't worry, should be easy to fudge these figures.
Prima: Excellent.

FOSS propaganda opportunity knocks

[jago25_98]

Wait. Maybe we could make an exception for a fully open source, well code reviewed phone?

Oh, it doesn't exist does it.

OK, troll over. Just another opportunity to show that open source does have a unique selling point and it's not being capitalised on.

Funny thing about backdoors

[MacDork]

Funny thing about backdoors, they can be used against you. The FBI have had this capability for years. Just google for "roving bug." What could possibly go wrong? Other people who aren't supposed to be using it have figured out how to exploit it? Do tell.

Worried about the wrong country?

[maroberts]

. According to the article, UK security services fear China, Russia and Pakistway have figured out a way to turn mobiles into microphones, and have them transmit even when they're off.

I'd be more worried about the likelihood the NSA is listening in after recent revelations

Re:What about the window?

[PPH]

Either no windows in secure meeting rooms. Or they stick little piezoelectric transducers to them and drive them with white noise.

It's Okay When We Do It

[SerenelyHotPest]

Per this, I feel comfortable saying cry me a river.

The outrage over foreign spying--in particular Chinese backdoors--on the part of the American intelligence community is really a form of the same thing: it's okay when we do it, but as soon as anyone else does the same thing to us, it's a gross affront to our privacy and the relationship we have with the spying party and possibly an act of war. I realize intelligence agencies are trained to think this way, but is it really so terribly difficult to grasp that if you don't want it done to yourself, it's probably a sign you shouldn't be doing it to others?

Re:It's Okay When We Do It

[jc42]

... it's okay when we do it, but as soon as anyone else does the same thing to us, it's a gross affront to our privacy and the relationship we have with the spying party and possibly an act of war.

Well, yeah; that's because we're God's chosen people, so everything we do to those foreigners is good and moral, but if they do it to us, they're evil and wrong.

[Plug in your favorite country, and translate to that country's official language(s), if necessary, to reach full understanding of how human governments work.]

Fixed that for you

[rainer_d]

According to the article, UK security services fear China, Russia and Pakistway have also figured out a way to turn mobiles into microphones...

Its Rupert and co they

[mjwalshe]

Should be worried about

Funny thing about chips designed in Cambridge

[evilandi]

Funniest thing about backdoors is that almost every mobile device in the world has an ARM chip, designed in Cambridge, UK. That's Cambridge as in MI5 open recruiting ground and MI6 clandestine recruiting ground.

Devices manufactured in China, using a British-designed chip, routed through British Telecom using Huawei equipment... as you said, what could possibly go wrong?

If I were the conspiratorial sort, I might have reason to suspect Cambridge-recruited personnel of working for the other side.

Re:Funny thing about chips designed in Cambridge

[K. S. Kyosuke]

ARM licenses the design but the SoC engineers in other companies work with the design itself extensively. They'd probably notice a spying module. MIx's would have to infiltrate either these companies as well, or the silicon fabs.

Re:Snowden's Fridge

[ShanghaiBill]

I think the boxes could more approriatally called Snowden's Fridge

But why is it lined with lead? As a Faraday Cage, wouldn't copper or aluminum make more sense? Also, it seems easy to defeat the metal box: you could just record the conversation (metal doesn't block sound), and then transmit it later when connectivity is restored.

British gov't afraid of surveillance?

[SeaFox]

We aren't even talking about citizens being the recorders (which would be super-ironic).

When the people in your government don't trust their closest co-workers, there's reason to be concerned about the health of the entire leadership system.

Infinity Bug

[beadwindow]

Infinity Bug anyone, this is indeed ancient tech. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_transmitter

Re:Following Recent News

[HiThere]

Why is everyone still believing that they are saying what they mean. I rather expect that the left out the US because that's primarily who this is ruling is directed at.

Re:Off?

[HiThere]

A lot of modern "off" switches should really be named "sleep". They don't turn the power off. If they did you couldn't use, e.g., wake on the network. Nothing that allows remote activation really turns itself off...and that includes a huge number of things with off switches.

Thanks Snowden, now what for the UK?

[AHuxley]

For years the GCHQ and NSA where happy to let UK political leaders chat away. Where was the skilled UK tech insight into been secure from Russia, the press, other motivated foreigners or groups? The same understanding of the secure UK telco networks could be seen and sold by any US/NATO contractor.
Only now does the UK gov understand what 'their' junk Enigma like cell network encryption can really be used for. The UK security staff willing, knowingly and over generations offered their countries political leadership junk encryption and told them its 'safe' to use it.
Now the reality of having some of your skilled UK tech more in touch with the NSA, NATO and other groups in the USA sets in. Who are your trusted security staff really working for and who are they promoting internally over the years? Two spy bosses? One in the US? One for contractors in the US? One in the UK? Would they do a modern MI5 and work for Russia too? China? Cash from the press? Cash from just about anyone or group? Some other faith?
All that UK policy about political issues, commercial deals, crime, oil, gas, weapons sales is not ending up in a safe in the Soviet Union - its been used in near real time thanks to sloppy UK staff.

Like this is new?

[Ol Olsoc]

Is this like one of those stories that tell people to make sure they cook their Thanksgiving turkey enough, and to put it in the refrigerator when it's done?

Because this news is about as fresh as that, a wireless phone should not ever be in the vicinity of any meeting, ever.