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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.
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 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.
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'
They were set up by Melania. She's trying to keep an eye on Donald.
Have gnu, will travel.
Because... All of the backdoors required to make surveillance of the masses possible..
Time for individual point to point encryption for just about everything..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
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".
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.
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
Because... All of the backdoors required to make surveillance of the masses possible..
Time for individual point to point encryption for just about everything..
Let's be a bit more specific. This is another typical NSA / NIST fuckup. When the cell phone systems originally started providing encryption, they looked at the systems. Instead of identifying problems and insisting they were fixed to improve the security of US civilian systems, they identified strengths such as the original stream cipher in GSM and insisted they were weakened. Now the backdoors / deliberately ignored faults they left in the systems are being used by foreign powers to monitor their own citizens and politicians.
Every time a politician or especially representative of one of the US TLAs demands weakened crypto, backdoors or escrow you should recognise them for the traitors they are to your country.
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.
The good news out of Washington is that someone is listening to the electorate at last.
Nullius in verba