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The Second Operating System Hiding In Every Mobile Phone
Jah-Wren Ryel writes "Every smartphone or other device with mobile communications capability (e.g. 3G or LTE) actually runs not one, but two operating systems. Aside from the operating system that we as end-users see (Android, iOS, PalmOS), it also runs a small operating system that manages everything related to radio. So, we have a complete operating system, running on an ARM processor, without any exploit mitigation (or only very little of it), which automatically trusts every instruction, piece of code, or data it receives from the base station you're connected to. What could possibly go wrong?"
In your house do you also provide the tinfoil hats when you drop off the cell phones? You could have a nick little rack setup with tinfoil hats on the bottom and chargers on the bottom. Of course your guest have to trust /you/ not to have chargers that tap their cell phones while they are in use. So many trust issues and so many conspiracies, where do you begin?
The SIM firmware runs silently and in the background and by some reports, even when the phone is switched off, it continues to slowly ping cell towers, making your phone trackable unless you remove the battery.
There's no paranoia like Geek paranoia who daily provide living examples of just how dangerous having just a little knowledge can be. You don't need to be paranoid about the radio in your cellphone. Yes your cellphone is trackable. IT HAS TO BE FOR THE THING TO WORK. I don't worry about who can track my phone when it's turned off, because I, like most people who have ditched landlines, don't turn it off. The whole point of having a phone is to be reachable by the folks who need to contact you and for you to reach those you need to contact. There's no point going over board in tracking the hardware because if you're that clandestine, you're just buying a brace of disposables and chucking them regularly as an operating expense. Or not using them at all. There's a lot of easier ways to track you by the incessant data trail you leave by your phone calls, your email, and your incessant tweeting about how paranoid you are about THEM finding you. You want to be untrackable... go chuck ALL of your communication gear... including your WIFI equipped laptop and go live in a cave somewhere.