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Paris Terrorists Used Burner Phones, Not Encryption, To Evade Detection (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader writes from an article on Ars Technica: New details of the Paris attacks carried out last November reveal that it was the consistent use of prepaid burner phones, not encryption, that helped keep the terrorists off the radar of the intelligence services. As an article in The New York Times reports: "the three teams in Paris were comparatively disciplined. They used only new phones that they would then discard, including several activated minutes before the attacks, or phones seized from their victims." The article goes on to give more details of how some phones were used only very briefly in the hours leading up to the attacks. "Everywhere they went, the attackers left behind their throwaway phones, including in Bobigny, at a villa rented in the name of Ibrahim Abdeslam. When the brigade charged with sweeping the location arrived, it found two unused cellphones still inside their boxes." At another location used by one of the terrorists, the police found dozens of unused burner phones "still in their wrappers." As The New York Times says, one of the most striking aspects of the phones is that not a single e-mail or online chat message from the attackers was found on them. But rather than trying to avoid discovery by using encryption -- which would in itself have drawn attention to their accounts -- they seem to have stopped using the internet as a communication channel altogether, and turned to standard cellular network calls on burner phones.
I'm shocked, shocked I say!
Sadly people in the US tend to picture the terrorists as being ignorant savages and maybe some of them are but they also have some very intelligent and resourceful people who develop methods of attack and avoidance of detection. I would hate to know how many dollars it takes to bag and tag just one terrorist, other than the ones at the lowest levels of their organizations. I suspect it would be millions of dollars for every real terrorist we stop.
But if we don't accept airport scanning which doesn't detect 98 percent of usable devices, and 24/7 information on every citizen which provides zero usable intel on anyone with a World War I level of training in spycraft, how can we all Live In Fear?
Do you want to let the terrorists win?
The terrorists want us to Live In Fear!
So we must all Live In Fear to protect ourselves with useless actions that are not helpful in any way!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
That's basically the rule that France (and various neighbouring countries) put into place since the attacks. You now need to show government issued id to buy a prepaid card. Previously sold cards must be registered now, or will be deactivated.
Terrorism is just a scapegoat used to target encryption. The siege will continue unabated.
...or a phone whose battery gets so hot it starts a fire?
Just in case you're not being facetious, a "burner phone" is a phone that you might only use once or a few times before switching to another one. The idea is that by the time the good guys figure out the number you're using and get a warrant to listen to those calls, you've already switched to a different phone and they have to start the whole process all over again.
that won't work and france knows it, they just want your data regardless. ordinary french citizens might still buy their phones and services in france and willingly cough-up their info, but you really think terrorists and crooks will? open borders and free travel in europe along with cooperative cellular networks across much of the continent means that the phone and prepaid sim you use in france need not be purchased in france.
Too easy to work around. What we need is properly staffed security services. Enough workforce that the investigations can be efficient without throwing due process down the drain. You can't do that with mass surveillance. Almost all attackers in France had been on the radar of French services at some point. They went off the radar because they were considered less threatening, and France didn't have enough people to keep an eye on them while other individuals seemed more dangerous at the time.
There's nothing like $HOME
Honestly the leaders of the world are drooling fucking morons.
we are all lucky that terrorists and thieves are as stupid as our leaders and police are. WE have the FBI wasting resources to get Apple to decrypt a phone with NOTHING ON IT for data THEY ALREADY HAVE. No wonder anyone with any brain cells does not trust police in any way. They are utterly incompetent.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The French do try. If you want a pay-as-you-go phone card (Mobicarte), you have to go to the shop and bring your passport or other ID card. They photocopy it, and bind your SIM card to that phone's IMEI.
Of course, you can just go abroad to the UK, go into any airport duty free and buy a pack of SIM cards there with roaming and data services enabled. Some hotels even sell them in vending machines. You used to get laptop PCMCIA cards for laptops that would let you surf the internet using a regular SIM card. These have been replaced with 3G/4G/5G network USB sticks or smartphones.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
ZOMG, can you imagine the threat? Why, I just returned from the UK, and when I landed there was a vending machine just FULL of SIM cards. I got a phone number and full service without ANY question, and I don't even have any of the terrorist training. I was just, able to buy something normal without ANY background check or inquiry into my plans. When I came back to the US, I saw another machine offering similar things. This is the way the world ends, not with world war 3, but with anonymous, prepaid cell phone service.
that won't work and france knows it, they just want your data regardless. ordinary french citizens might still buy their phones and services in france and willingly cough-up their info[...]
This has been the rule in Italy for many years: want a SIM card, show your passport or ID card, a photocopy of which will be kept with the registration information. All owners of previously bought SIM cards had to provide the required information to their providers or their cards were deactivated. Citizens have not "coughed-up their info willingly", they were forced to do so.
Unfortunately, organized crime, crooks and the shadier parts of society (including some politicians) don't have to play by these rules. They simply submit(ted) somebody else's ID, either with or without their knowledge.
You now also need to show a government issued id when you steal a phone or apply for a fake id.
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
Too easy to work around. What we need is properly staffed security services. Enough workforce that the investigations can be efficient without throwing due process down the drain. You can't do that with mass surveillance. Almost all attackers in France had been on the radar of French services at some point. They went off the radar because they were considered less threatening, and France didn't have enough people to keep an eye on them while other individuals seemed more dangerous at the time.
What we 'need' to do is to wrap up the war in the middle east and build an infrastructure that gives the kids growing up there some hope for a future that compares favorably to blowing one's self up.
And as far as more security...there's plenty of security already in the airports in Europe - including Brussels - and it didn't do jack to stop the attack today.
We need a long term plan not just "more security forces" that aren't effective against people willing to blow themselves up to make a point.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
A Dutch journalist had a genuine Syrian passport made with the image of the Dutch prime minister (under a different name). He paid a couple of hundred dollars, though. Problem is that several groups in Syria have seized machines and supplies used to make these passports, and they are selling them to anyone who wants one. The Belgian authorities reported many so-called refugees with genuine Syrian passports who all had suspiciously similar stories, and upon further questioning admitted to being from Iraq, Morocco and other places.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...