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Department of Justice Harvests Cell Phone Data Using Planes

Posted by samzenpus on from the we-can-hear-you-now dept.

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.

14 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. About time for a Free baseband processor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:About time for a Free baseband processor by arth1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Of course, political involvment is the more adequate approach to a political problem.

      According to the US constitution, arms is the correct approach to governmental oppression.

      But far be it for me to advocate the constitution, because that's illegal...

    2. Re:About time for a Free baseband processor by Charcharodon · · Score: 4, Informative
      You are forgetting about the Pre-pre-amble to the Constitution aka the Declaration of Independence. It has a few things to say about the rule of government and the rights and responsibilities of the people.

      "...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.......But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

    3. Re:About time for a Free baseband processor by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The U.S. Constitution was written by people who had just violently overthrown their government, who were quoted saying things like "the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." If the American Revolution were happening today, King George would be calling them "terrorists." And you think the 2nd Amendment somehow doesn't suggest using force against government oppression?

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    4. Re:About time for a Free baseband processor by SuricouRaven · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem with this approach comes from trying to define 'oppressive.' You may like the idea of a clerk misplacing the paperwork required to authorise the use of force on peaceful protesters, yes. But elsewhere, another clerk has decided that the government has no right to 'redefine marriage' and is quietly smuging the ink on the appropriate applications to make sure gay couples don't get processed. Both would view themselves as the heroes, bravely risking their job to fight against a government exceeding lawful authority.

  2. "individuals under investigation" by QilessQi · · Score: 5, Funny

    i.e., "everyone".

    --
    Koans and fables for the software engineer
  3. Cellphone reception issues? by Tyr07 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm not exactly against them catching criminals, but how often has someone receive shitty cell service and 'drops' because of these fake towers?

    1. Re:Cellphone reception issues? by arth1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'm not exactly against them catching criminals, but how often has someone receive shitty cell service and 'drops' because of these fake towers?

      If they have caused just one 911 call to fail or be delayed, someone needs to be pilloried.
      The end does not justify the means.

  4. Dumbed down for ... who? by arth1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

  5. 4th Amendment ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:4th Amendment ... by ganjadude · · Score: 3, Insightful

      since when has this admin (or the last for that matter) given a flying fuck about the 4th amendment (or constitution in general?)

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    2. Re:4th Amendment ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sadly, when 9/11 happened, they pretty much decided that the niceties of the Constitution and the law were far too dangerous to allow, and went straight to the fascism.

      Essentially, the terrorists won, because they've more or less caused governments around the world to start ignoring our rights.

      Now it's security at any costs, and since we're already tracking you, we'll pass that onto law enforcement and teach them how to hide the source of intelligence. Oh, and we'll share it among a bunch of other countries, and secretly enlist the corporations to hand over their data.

      So, now we'll monitor everything you do, using laws we said we'd only use for terrorism, and then have the police perjure themselves to make it look like they obtained the information legally.

      Papers please, comrade.

      I wonder how long before they no longer feel the need to give us the illusion of freedom?

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  6. Re:Is there anything Obama CAN do? by blackiner · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Nobody who was paying attention voted for Obama because of his anti-surveillance promises. The moment he voted for telecom retroactive immunity it was clear he wasn't about "Change" at all. I don't know why people were so easily fooled by his charade, just looking at his voting history would have made it all very clear.

  7. Federal Laws by Terry+Pearson · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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/...