Slashdot Mirror
Department of Justice Harvests Cell Phone Data Using Planes
Tyketto writes The US Department of Justice has been using fake communications towers installed in airplanes to acquire cellular phone data for tracking down criminals, reports The Wall Street Journal. Using fix-wing Cessnas outfitted with DRT boxes produced by Boeing, the devices mimic cellular towers, fooling cellphones into reporting "unique registration information" to track down "individuals under investigation." The program, used by the U.S. Marshals Service, has been in use since 2007 and deployed around at least five major metropolitan areas, with a flying range that can cover most of the US population. As cellphones are designed to connect to the strongest cell tower signal available, the devices identify themselves as the strongest signal, allowing for the gathering of information on thousands of phones during a single flight. Not even having encryption on one's phone, like found in Apple's iPhone 6, prevents this interception. While the Justice Department would not confirm or deny the existence of such a program, Verizon denies any involvement in this program, and DRT (a subsidiary of Boeing), AT&T, and Sprint have all declined to comment.
Having a database of the cell towers a phone *should* see in a given region (it should be possible to crowdsource that) should make it possible to throw an alarm if a cell tower with suspicious characteristics "appears" at some spot.
For that, we'd need reasonably documented baseband processors.
Of course, political involvment is the more adequate approach to a political problem. But why neglect the technical tools?
i.e., "everyone".
Koans and fables for the software engineer
I'm not exactly against them catching criminals, but how often has someone receive shitty cell service and 'drops' because of these fake towers?
Not even having encryption on one's phone, like found in Apple's iPhone 6, prevents this interception.
WTF does this statement have to do in TFS? There cannot possibly be any slashdotters ignorant enough about technology to think that encryption of a device would have any impact on the radio signals?
I really miss /. - where did it go?
Unreasonable search and seizure.
I'm sorry, but this is blanket surveillance, without warrant, probable cause, or oversight.
At a certain point, the court needs to weigh in on this, because DoJ and the rest of law enforcement are completely ignoring the Constitution, the law, and pretty much everything else.
Why is this not landing these clowns in jail?
When your government becomes hostile to your rights, it's time to become hostile to your government.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I used to have a friend who was convinced that the CIA was flying around in black helicopters spying on everyone. Guess I owe him an apology. He just wasn't thinking big enough.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Why does it feel like they are waging a covert war against average citizens going about their daily routine? FFS, knock it off already!
That goes also under "technical tools", I guess?
Isn't it about time we changed that line in The Star-Spangled Banner from: O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ...to: O'er the land of the watched and the foul suspected knaves?
I think my country, 'Tis of Thee, would be a better and more mellow place if we reverted to the original lyrics to the song..
Our problem is that too many fellow fucking Americans spend time looking for bogeymen instead of entwining the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus' vine.
Satellites. But the satellites are used for passive interception by SIGINT, so you can suck up cell phone signaling data from space as well as brainwave emissions and other wired and wireless emanations.
SIGINT/NSA was tasked in the beginning with interception of air waves, and Senator Frank Church warned of it's power if it were ever to be turned against Americans in the 1970s when the first FBI/CIA/NSA/Executive Branch abuses were investigated. This has always been their primary purpose, their main skill, it does not require hardline access or a direct connection the device or network being monitored, and nothing is shielded or encrypted in the consumer realm today allowing it all to go down seamlessly..
Many methods can be used to intercept and break encryption keys even if encryption is used, even intercepting and sniffing the encryption codes direct from vendors and the hardware devices from space using types of interferometry (thanks to the power of quantum mechanics, if a remote state of matter or energy can be read, they can read it bypassing the devices normal function).
Nothing is beyond our reach! Get your kicks on route 66! NRO/NSA/CIA ownz j00. And you fucking noobs don't even know it! REPORT ON WHAT THE BLACK WORLD IS FOR A CHANGE, WE'RE CENTURIES AHEAD OF THIS SHIT AND HAVE NO LIMITS AT ALL. OTHER THAN OUR IMAGINATIONS, ANYWAY..
Patented and black ops whistleblowers behind this: http://www.obamasweapon.com/
I find it interesting that we're getting great investigative journalism out of places like The Wall Street Journal - reread the name if you don't see the irony - rather than the New York Times, the Washington Post, etc. What ELSE do you guys know about that you haven't revealed yet?
Moriarty^W AT&T: "See, it's not our fault you get crappy service when your phone shows four bars, it's the NSA. "
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
>> Yes, Obama has failed to stop it. But he didn't initiate it.
We voted for this guy to roll back the surveillance state, get out of the torture business, and retract our forces from Iraq. He had one job - roll back what someone else initiated - and he utterly failed.
>> I suspect a lot of people welcome this crap with open arms
How'd those past couple of mid-term elections go for the current pro-surveillance party (D)?
It's like melamine in you baby food.
Don't give me no shuck about "legal", "constitutional" or "moral".
Just assume if it's technically possible, somebody is doing it, and act accordingly.
I know you're hiding somewhere with your damsons and prunes. Well I'm ready for you. I've wired meself up to 200 tons of gelignite, and if any one of you so much as makes a move we'll all go up together! Right, right. I warned you. That's it...
-- NOTE -- the quote was satire, relevant to the arms race you've created, NSA
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I recall touring the facility in Eastern Los Angeles (I got a free hat and T-Shirt) >5 years ago. The plane was parked in the hangar there. If I recall correctly it is part of the Technical Operations Group (TOG) within the USM. It's been awhile but I thought there were 10 TOGs around the USA. The USM crew there made fun of the FBI for their lack of skills and experience even though the Bureau had excessive amounts of cell tracking equipment.
As someone who has been through the federal justice system, I advise any American to assume that every piece of communication is tracked and saved under the guise of security. It was amazing to me how much information and how many resources the government has the ability to utilize if it wants to target one person, and even if I do make full restitution to my victims, I do not know if I will ever feel free again - not because of my situation, which you can read at The Market is not Random - but because of the knowledge I gained from the inside out.
-Anthony
-------
artlu.net
>> I'm not hearing Republicans saying this should stop.
Meet Rand Paul (R): http://lmgtfy.com/?q=rand+paul...
Also, here's a 2013 poll demonstrating most of the support for wiretapping is now in the Democratic party:
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/c...
Long story short, if you're not hearing people say it should stop, it's time to open your ears.
I don't get overexcited by this. It is just observing stuff in a public place. We don't get upset by policemen looking at the faces of all passers by, when searching for a miscreant. If you want to use the cellphone system you are going to broadcast and anybody, good or bad, can pick up your transmissions. It is a downside of a technology we didn't have thirty years ago, and a technology with a lot of advantages.You similarly "broadcast" your car's registration number all the time.
My problem, so far as it goes, is with the various authorities secrecy about it. I think the police should be "keeping an eye" on the neighbourhood - and they should be open about it. If what they are doing it, they should be open about it. If it needs to be hidden, they shouldn't be doing it - in broad principle, if not the details. The police should not have dirty secrets (applies less to counter-intelligence agencies). If they are ashamed of this program, they should not be doing it. If they are not ashamed, tell us what it does.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
The use of disposable phones, multiple SIM cards, etc, is a near-universal presence in any kind of mass entertainment featuring espionage or even semi-organized criminal enterprises.
Even at this point, how low-level and stupid do most criminals have to be to use/carry a cell phone any longer than absolutely necessary? And if they do use one, wouldn't it be a throwaway they would get rid of after a short period?
Ultimately sting-ray and it's ilk seem like they would just no longer be useful.
Mmmm... conversate...
It's good to see evidence that the English language is still growing. Let's give this one a try: "I was conversating with these guys on slashdot." Yep, it works, though "conversing" would have saved a couple of keystrokes. Still, verbifying a noun that was nounified from a verb has a certain, je nes sais pas, roundness about it.
Will
People always say this, but they neglect to mention WHICH FEDERAL LAWS are being broken daily by everybody.
I suppose people either just assume it is true, or they know details but do not want to get too sidetracked... This video may help explain which laws we break daily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
On a more on topic note, StingRay devices cover a broad range of uses. Some simply harvest unique cellular IDs, while others do much more to intercept communication and emulate legitimate towers. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Were the government a force for good, I'd be pacified, but since they have proven to be in the service of big syndicate, I'm worried.
That's the problem of this post-modernist world. Your definition of "good" does not coincide with the next guy's definition of "good".
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
I had just landed at CLT airport from abroad. Turned on my Verizon phone and the little "roaming" triangle was flickering over the signal bars. Then I received some random text about subscribing to juice bar alerts (I get very few spam texts). So it may not be only the government up to this kind of shenanigans.
Bonus points if you can re-nounify it.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
Thanks for that... I'm surprised that people on slashdot are calling for political solutions to political "problems" instead of technological solutions that do more to guarantee security and privacy against surveillance, be it "legal" or illegal.
I'll reserve my outrage for when using strong encryption becomes regulated.
Flying Stingrays? Sounds like a movie plot. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2724064/
Don't expect that everyone else should roll over and present their perfurmed anuses to the surveillance state, as you seem content to.
I just do bilingual typos.
Will
Every time I hear another story like this I think of Person Of Interest. I'm starting to think that show is based on reality and not some futuristic sci-fi dreams.
Because governmental employees get to decide when to enforce the law.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
This would be so easy for criminals to work around. Just use a cheap prepaid phone and change it often, as seen on Breaking Bad. They are less than $15 at Walmart.
According to the US constitution, arms is the correct approach to governmental oppression.
Ah, no, but thanks for playing. We are currently at a phase when civil participation in the political process is the correct approach. An armed approach is inefficient, and repeated resort to that approach leads to repeated resort to that approach. In addition, to burst a popular bubble, if you're imaging armed participation, it's very likely someone will pry it out of your cold, dead hands.
If you let a reasonably open and civil political system get to the point where an armed approach is the efficient solution, you've been sitting on the sidelines and/or remained clueless for too long. Just to be clear regarding our current situation, how you feel about cultural issues, "Obamacare", or abortion aren't relevant.... until someone comes along who really does care how you feel about it, and uses all that neat anti-terrorist infrastructure to show just how much.
Changing the oil is greatly preferable to replacing the engine.
Luke, help me take this mask off
The courts don't need convincing when it's one of their own that testifies... U.S. justice is no different than the Mafia...
Dear Microlimp: I give you 2 valid product keys for win7 and you reject both of them. Piss off you wankers!!!