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Court Mulls Revealing Secret Government Plan To Cut Cell Phone Service
An anonymous reader writes with the latest in the ongoing legal battle over revealing details of Standing Operating Procedure 303, the government's plan to cut mobile phone service during an emergency. "A federal appeals court is asking the Obama administration to explain why the government should be allowed to keep secret its plan to shutter mobile phone service during 'critical emergencies.' The Department of Homeland Security came up with the plan—known as Standing Operating Procedure 303—after cellular phones were used to detonate explosives targeting a London public transportation system. SOP 303 is a powerful tool in the digital age, and it spells out a 'unified voluntary process for the orderly shut-down and restoration of wireless services during critical emergencies such as the threat of radio-activated improvised explosive devices.'"
Oh! Hi, all you other frogs in here.
Is this water getting warmer?
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
"after cellular phones were used to detonate explosives targeting a London public transportation system."
They better block all frequencies just to be safe. It would also be a good idea to block light and sound too just in case someone uses a "clapper". While they're at it, stop time. The bad guys might use an egg timer.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/1...
"The drives even have their own built-in GSM access. If the signal goes quiet for too long, the drive is destroyed."
Any GSM triggered bomb could also be rigged with a 'fail-dangerous' to detonate if signals are blocked.
Lets say there is a bomb. And it has a phone attached. And you have inside information that it is really connected to a real cell phone. And you don't know where the person is with the other phone. And you know from your inside information that the timer will wait 6 hours before the fail-safe makes it blow up.
What if it is not a bomb. What if a war breaks out, and you know for a fact that there is an intelligence agent reporting over a regular cell phone, using coded words, about the movements of ships out of a harbor. Cutting off that flow of information while you set sail might be very valuable.
I'm not arguing for (or against) the wisdom of these policies. But there are obvious and legit reasons for the government to make plans for how to deal with unlikely emergencies.
They probably also have plans for what to do if we're invaded by Canada. Not because it is likely, but because a nation this large can afford to plan for unlikely things. Some of those unlikely things will actually happen.
As to this case, the Executive gets to tell the Court that their reason is that their conclusion is that National Security requires it. That it is their opinion makes it a good enough reason, because national security is not the business of the Court. Expect this story to be nothing, and go nowhere. For or against the policy, you should be able to see this approach will not yield any fruit.
As usual, this kind of ham-handed policy will simply inconvenience (or even imperil) tens to hundreds of thousands of innocent, law-abiding people while the criminals will simply switch (if they haven't already) to a different means of remote activation.
I'd love to say it's unbelievable, but it's becoming sadly predictable.
in a day and age that local cell phone jamming is relatively easy, it seems like the obvious construction is to have a device that must get a text message every interval (1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, whatever) or it triggers.
an cheap FM radio could be put on a frequency that is not used, and be triggered by a strong signal on that frequency (a bit dangerous, but you're a terrorist, you probably don't give a fuck), or a DTMF decoder-on-a-chip could be packed inside of the radio for a slightly more secure deliver.
Another option is a rather inexpensive RC toy, or a slightly more expensive hobbyist RC transmitter/receiver combo (not as portable as above). Range can be a few miles if you get the VHF receiver (normally required a HAM license, but terrorists wouldn't care about that)
802.11 wifi and the passwords for the coffee shops and hotels in range should do the trick and work anywhere. Plus, no need to dial in. You can have it triggered online. Welcome to the Internet of Things, where Things include bombs.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Why.... is this government completely inept?
This would totally work. Except for WiFi, 433mhz industrial radios (easily available), CBs, ham radios, family band radios (from walmart, target, etc.), never mind anyone who was really serious about whatever they wanted to do and went through the effort of acquiring wireless communication gear not so commonly available.
This is a fine example of how DHS is *reactionary* and a complete waste of my tax dollars.
Except that having your phone shut off is going to endanger your life.
Because you'll be furiously clicking everything you can to try and figure out why your texting is no longer working, instead of occasionally looking up from the phone, because you were texting while driving?
...before the actual emergency occurs. As we've seen many times, during major emergencies the cell phone networks are already crippled by volume and no one can make a call anyways.
911 generally still works during network overload; the wattage on your transmission goes up, and your phone does other ("different") things in "emergency mode". So yes, the normal traffic is all jammed up, but the 911 emergency mode service will happily kick even highest priority users off the cell tower, if there are no slots available. That's why you can be dropped off a call at peak calling times, if you are not a highest priority user.
If it gets overloaded with 911 calls, it handles those under a different mode, first come, first serve, to keep the backhaul network operating.
People in government branches have cell phones which operate in yet a third mode, and will even kick 911 calls off (secretary of state, secretary of defense, and so on).
You should really learn your phone network protocols...
Lol, I'm pretty sure everyone in my military career field is automatically on watch lists, so I don't worry about it happening anymore, I just assume it's already happened. :P
It's already happened...
An unexpected and unwanted text message from a wireless company prematurely exploded a would-be suicide bomber’s vest bomb in Russia New Year’s Eve, inadvertently thwarting a planned attack on revelers in Moscow, according to The Daily Telegraph.
It's also happened in Egypt and a couple other countries that I'm aware of.
Oh, and some are talking about having the system 'fail deadly'. The 'easy' fix to that is that you keep the 'network connection' up, you simply disable the servers - IE no calls go into the area, nor any texts. You see signal, but all anybody calling you gets is(ideally), 4 rings and voicemail.
I don't read AC A human right
there would be law suits and the Government would lose
Thanks, I needed a good laugh.
Now might be a good time to invest in CB Radios or a HAM license and station.
Finding God in a Dog
They wouldn't shut down all cell phone service over a bomb threat. They'd shut it down to stop an organized flash mob.
But the flash mob is already working on specific apps that do not need a working cell tower to run. The serval project and firechat come to mind. both can contact other smart phones without needing a cell tower. plus people are working on p-cells and modified routers that can work as cell towers just fine in very limited areas, Microsoft is working on white space routers that can handle thousands of transactions at once, and is testing it in several places. not to mention the 802.22 standard already implemented for a router with a 40 mile range.
So the stingray is a police run cell tower designed to track phones by their sim or imei handshake. Is already up and running in most places, but doesn't actually carry traffic.So what would stop the government from using stingray to "brick" all phones through an over-the-air signal?
But then again, a rooted phone can probably be set to ignore that....
and the dance continues.
Some people buy a mobile phone for the first time expressly because of things like danger to their lives. Abusive ex-boyfriend stalkers, that sort of thing. Turning out to be the late shift manager at a retail location, and having to drive home in the middle of the night. Hell, there's whole programs designed specifically to provide mobile phones to women who've relocated to shelters because of danger to their lives. Not that you care, I'm sure.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
"But on August 11, 2011, however, BART took an unprecedented step. Under orders from BART police, the system shut down underground wireless service for three hours. The interruption covered stations in downtown San Francisco. In a statement, administrators clearly identified “organizers planning to disrupt BART service . . . us[ing] mobile devices to coordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART Police” as the rationale behind the move."
https://www.aclu.org/blog/tech...
It has nothing to do with "bombs". We had to get the patriot act in order to fight terrorists.
"Of the 22,741 warrants issued since 2003, 21,838 (96%) were issued under the heading of "Narcotics."
https://www.techdirt.com/artic...
How many times are we going to fall for this trick?
Do you have ESP?
One of those words does not mean what you hope it means.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Marshall Law? Who he?
Marshal Law is a deconstruction comic dealing with superheroes as hypocritical villains and the self loathing of those who find themselves with powers. There is also a second series where they train new superheros and a third where he meets Pinhead from Hellraiser.