Slashdot Mirror
US Suspects Listening Devices in Washington (apnews.com)
For the first time, the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminal could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages. From a report: The use of what are known as cellphone-site simulators by foreign powers has long been a concern, but American intelligence and law enforcement agencies -- which use such eavesdropping equipment themselves -- have been silent on the issue until now. In a March 26 letter to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that last year it identified suspected unauthorized cell-site simulators in the nation's capital. The agency said it had not determined the type of devices in use or who might have been operating them. Nor did it say how many it detected or where.
The agency's response, obtained by The Associated Press from Wyden's office, suggests little has been done about such equipment, known popularly as Stingrays after a brand common among U.S. police departments. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the nation's airwaves, formed a task force on the subject four years ago, but it never produced a report and no longer meets regularly. The devices work by tricking mobile devices into locking onto them instead of legitimate cell towers, revealing the exact location of a particular cellphone. More sophisticated versions can eavesdrop on calls by forcing phones to step down to older, unencrypted 2G wireless technology. Some attempt to plant malware.
The agency's response, obtained by The Associated Press from Wyden's office, suggests little has been done about such equipment, known popularly as Stingrays after a brand common among U.S. police departments. The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the nation's airwaves, formed a task force on the subject four years ago, but it never produced a report and no longer meets regularly. The devices work by tricking mobile devices into locking onto them instead of legitimate cell towers, revealing the exact location of a particular cellphone. More sophisticated versions can eavesdrop on calls by forcing phones to step down to older, unencrypted 2G wireless technology. Some attempt to plant malware.
Sure, it could be foreign agencies .. that's plausible.
It could also be that these groups found that every fucking law enforcement and government spy agency was doing so much of this shit they'd better just shut up about it and pretend it's all OK.
Face it, America ... you live in a surveillance state, and most of your Constitution is now optional.
Stop fucking claiming you still live in a free country, or don't live in an oligarchy which only really serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy -- because that hasn't been true in years.
With the disconnects between various agencies and departments within agencies, I wouldn't be surprised if it was some agency of the US government spying on us. It isn't like they haven't been caught already spying on Americans. But we don't talk about it because THAT would be RACIST!!!!!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Why the fuck are there not certificates, authorities, etc., like SSL?
acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminal.
That sentence sure went off the rails.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
This is totally manipulating the general public. Let's create more fear... rather than let the intelligence agencies do their job.
Of course there are listening devices in Washington. They exist in Moscow as well- and all other countries.
Here's how it works:
Make people dumb everything down. Then scare the crap out of everyone. Then hold an election.
Works almost always.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
I imagine it is just the Russians and Chinese trying to keep up with what the other is up to. Or maybe its just the Russians spying on the Russians. There can't be anything interesting happening there originating from US sources.
This is the original statement on which conjectures are based on:
>Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that last year it identified suspected unauthorized cell-site simulators in the nation’s capital. The agency said it had not determined the type of devices in use or who might have been operating them. Nor did it say how many it detected or where.
This statement suggests that someone in DHS Washington actually checked with every single signals intelligence agency in the country to ensure that whatever they found isn't one of their own.
Considering the competition between various agencies within the state of US, I strongly suspect that what actually happened is that they couldn't get anyone domestic they asked to admit to having planted whatever they found, so they're working on assumption that it must be foreign by default. While it's most likely planted by one of the agencies, which may not even know it's theirs on the top of bureaucratic chain, must less be able and willing to pass this information on to DHS.
I guess somebody detected an Alexa device from the owner of the Washington Post an got a paranoia seizure.
Homeland security saw the NSA's fake towers. The NSA of course was spying on their natural enemy...the Defense Recon Agency...who were keeping an eye on the DEA, who were trying to intercept and 'tax' CIA's cocaine money (who were already paying a tax to the DRA).
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
mmm yes without the lube for everyone
How much do the Russians pay you to spread lies? Or do you simply do it out of the goodness of your heart.
Step 1) Use gerrymandering to win the majority of congressional seats, despite most Americans not agreeing with your politics.
Step 2) Win the presidental election by a hare's tooth, despite the your opponent being the single most unlikable politician to ever win the nomination.
Step 3) Then, despite being the first time EVER when one party has a majority of Congress, SCOTUS, and holds the Presidency, totally fail to get most of what you claim to want done.
Step 4) When everyone laughs at your total incompetence, make up a never before heard of "deep state" of enemies that supposedly secretly run the US government and blame it all on them.
Yes, mom, it wasn't me that spilled grape juice on your white carpet, it was my invisible friend DEEP STATE.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
They were set up by Melania. She's trying to keep an eye on Donald.
Have gnu, will travel.
Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that last year it identified suspected unauthorized cell-site simulators in the nation's capital.
Ha ha
(in my best Nelson Muntz voice).
rouge towers huh, - that just has to be them commie pinkos...
Nullius in verba
Not like they are picking any up in Washington anyways.
The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
I suppose it's too obvious to point out that in a democracy, where every constituent's interests differs to some degree from every other constituent's interests, that the government's "interests" are never going to align 100% with any given person's own interests?
Whenever a choice has to be made, someone is going to be disappointed. If they are disappointed enough, they can help vote in new representatives whose policies more closely align with their own views; but of course the people who supported the original decision are also free to support its continuation. That's just democracy, not a "deep state", or a "foreign power", despite what the anti-democratic populists would have people believe.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
One year ago, to the day ...
With a map of where the devices where, and all the probable parties that would be using them ... domestic and foreign, friendly or otherwise ...
CBC investigation finds cell phone trackers at work near Parliament Hill and embassies.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
What's surprising is how long it took you to figure it out.
Oh, and all your cloud storage and Bluetooth make it so easy.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
We live in an age in which the bluray disk that you buy in the store will only operate correctly in a bluray player and TV that have contain appropriate encryption keys, yet our cell phone network - arguably something in need of *more* protection - lacks even the most basic handshaking or authentication capabilities. As users of this technology, we should be demanding Industry Standards which allow us to control the digital keys of networks and that we trust, so that we can actually look at our handset and determine which tower a device has paired with.
This would not stop the authorities from conducting legal, authorized surveillance, because they could simply get a court order and have the appropriate tower operator[s] grant them access to the traffic. Unless, of course, they were conducting illegal surveillance of people and didn't have a court order, but that's hardly our problem...
In a similar fashion, there was nothing stopping the makers of the so-called Stingray and other devices from having a configurable operator setup process in which, before "standing up" in operating mode, the device requires the operator to provide the number of numbers of a finite [but reasonably] number of handsets that the Stingray is to track. Say, for example, the a maximum of 100 cell phones]. Because the internal working of the Stingray could be designed to only "pair" with handsets on the list, the Stingray could only include data from legitimate targets, thus narrowing the scope for warrantless surveillance.
Both of these techniques are entirely within our capability, today. Both would require only software changes [although I'd concede that the first is more of a protocol change].
The fact that neither of these are even being discussed - that in fact there is no discussion concerning what might need to be done to ensure that surveillance remains proportionate, limited, controlled and of identified targets - should be ringing alarm bells - and not because of some simplistic, idealistic, libertarian dogma.
All the evidence we have suggests that our security services are suffering from "data overload" - that whilst there might be valuable intelligence gathered today, our ability to sift it out of the noise is simply lacking. So far from limiting the ability of security services to "find the bad guys", steps like these would actually enhance our ability to do so, by helping to "filter out the noise".
"All evidence"
Enjoy that echo chamber you live in.
Get someone to tag these items, if on pole, and allow the populace to use them for target practice!!
Two birds, One stone...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Heh
Olphart at play. Ruck FepubliKKKans. Welcome to the Worldwide Idiocracy, y'all.
But we don't talk about it because THAT would be RACIST!!!!!
Nobody's talking about race but you. Neither TFA nor the current topic are remotely related to race. Stop trying to drag race into a situation where it's entirely irrelevant.
In other words, STFU Trump-lover.
Most people aren't laughing at Trump, but at CNN, etc.
You have a very inaccurate view of "most people". You and your circle-jerk buddies patting each other on the back at Trump's glowing success is a distorted view of Americans. Would you like to trade examples of Trump misrepresenting the truth for examples of CNN doing the same? I'll start:
* Biggest electoral college win since Reagan.
* Biggest inauguration crowd ever
* Obama tappped my phones
* Construction started on border wall
Your turn. I'm ready.
I'm thinking about how this played out over the phone after the DHS discovered the devices:
Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
Not only can they not prevent wide-ranging conspiracies (911 and other terrorist attacks) they can't even detect and shut down foreign Stingrays? More likely, this is a case of:
1) More calling wolf, like the accusation that Russia hacked an electrical grid, which turned out to be crap
2) It's more Five Eyes bullshit. The NSA knows perfectly well that these are devices installed by foreign governments - because the NSA helped Australia, Canada or the UK set them up in the first place to get around the 4th Amendment.
If the US has been caught spying on close allies like Germany and Israel, then you can reasonably assume that Russia, China, North Korea, and others are spying on the US. (we've caught Israel spying on the US for example)
At this point I assume that even the UK spies on the US. And that Sweden probably hosts spies from other countries at the Embassy of Sweden. I guess we all like keeping an eye on our friends and there is no such thing as absolute trust between nations.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It is racist, because it happened to a great extent on BHO administration. That makes it racist. It was a hidden dig. ;)
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Right. Because condemning one of Obama's policies is the same as condemning all blacks. Perfect sense.
STFU racist Trump-lover.
Face it, America ... you live in a surveillance state, and most of your Constitution is now optional.
Comrade, we're doing a lot better than you. We still elect our leaders. Opposition figures aren't murdered by the ruling party. And we can speak out whenever we want without fear of ending up in a Siberian gulag.
Corporations are people too.
Meh. Hyperbole much? In reality, rights aren't absolute. We've actually got pretty darn good privacy freedoms in the USA. It's just not an absolute right to privacy under ANY situation. Same for the right to free speech. Great freedom of speech, just not quite ANY speech in ANY situation. Same goes for freedom to bear arms, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, life, liberty happiness and all the rest. Not saying our country is perfect. Far from it. Lots of work to be done. We should call out problems when we see it. However, just cause something's less than perfect doesn't mean it's total crap. Lots of people on this forum tend to be binary - something is either perfect or worthless. Sorry, life is rarely black and white.
I hate to break it to you, but your current elected leader was brought in power with help from a country that includes Siberia and that does murder opposition figures.
Yes, mistakes were made.
Good thing you are posting as AC and not admitting what country you are from. Otherwise, I'd need to play a little game with you.
Who needs a Siberian gulag, if they can gather around enough expensive advocates to hit someone with endless trials, until he/she is completely out of money. Really - If you are out of money and living on the streets, you are just as effectively neutralized as when they put you in a gulag. Those with money and power can rip somebody's life to shreds, and it's just just as effective as murdering him/her.
That's weird. I'm speaking out against my highest elected official right now and I'm not subject to endless trials and I'm not living on the street.
Regardless, I don't even know what you are talking about. Opposition isn't destroyed though legal proceedings in the US. If anything it's the other way around: opposition can tie up the powers in place with legal proceedings.
I didn't vote for Trump. Try again.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The good news out of Washington is that someone is listening to the electorate at last.
Nullius in verba
"For the first time, the U.S. government has publicly acknowledged the existence in Washington of what appear to be rogue devices that foreign spies and criminal could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages"
The only people using Stingrays are the Washington police and the state security apparatus.
Stingray, the fake cell phone tower cops and carriers use to track your every move
Stingray I/II Ground Based Geo-Location (Vehicular)
Better: Shoot the device and then see who comes to repair / check on it.
Best: Monetize. Create a mobile app and let people place bets on which country / agency the item belongs to.
About as good as the grocery shoppers in St. Petersburg last Christmas.
you see, do not do to others what you do not want to be done to you!!
Karma is a bitch!
Higuita
It's almost inevitable that everyone is spying on everyone else with these things.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
As a non-American I can tell you that we have laughed at several of your presidents in my lifetime.
Your Mr. Reagan was considered to be a particular fuckwit, but we had confidence you would see through him and elect someone capable of tying his own shoes in 1984, but then you gave him an even bigger mandate which was a bit hard to believe really.
The next couple of guys were sort of bog standard American style arseholes, but at least they seemed to know what they were doing.
I don't know if you're old enough to remember 2000, but it turns out you guys elected a former coke-friend idiot trust fund baby who had even less clue than Mr. Reagan, to the surprise of the whole world.
Never mind we thought, nobody could be worse than Mr. Bush II, but then you elected Mr. Trump and we're not really laughing now, because you've got both stupid and nasty in one package.
You current fuckwit is likely to start killing people because they looked at him sideways.
Femtocells are small though, usually deployed inside with short range.
-The art of programming is the pursuit of absolute simplicity.
If it was foreign agencies the GCHQ, NSA, CIA, FBI, MI5 would all be sharing and looking globally.
The collection systems have 3 stories.
Criminals looking to track police, informants and city workers. To build a vast database of everyone working with and for police.
Every face, licence plate and their cell phones. Everyone in and out of city and federal buildings in real time.
Mulitnational companies tried of city and state regulations. Track every city worker and police to map out city enforcement.
Who is undercover for the city and who can the company avoid in real time.
Contractors who sold the US gov on voice prints, CCTV, cell phone collection. Build the networks and show the feds what can be done in real time as a sales presentation. Someone is now using that network for fun and profit.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Why yes. The human race sucks. I'll use you as a fine example of why.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The government represents the rich and the corporations. That is who gave them their campaign funds and that is who they are aligned with. I don't know how you ever got the idea that they represent the citizens that voted for them. It hasn't been that way for a long time and never will be again until we get money out of politics.
J
Yes, Russia is worse. Somalia worse still. Congratulations, you win the Paralympic gold medal.
Now try running your comparison against able-bodied countries.