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40 Cellphone-Tracking Devices Discovered Throughout Washington (nbcwashington.com)
The investigative news "I-Team" of a local TV station in Washington D.C. drove around with "a leading mobile security expert" -- and discovered dozens of StingRay devices mimicking cellphone towers to track phone and intercept calls in Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
The I-Team found them in high-profile areas like outside the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and while driving across the 14th Street bridge into Crystal City... The I-Team's test phones detected 40 potential locations where the spy devices could be operating, while driving around for just a few hours. "I suppose if you spent more time you'd find even more," said D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh. "I have bad news for the public: Our privacy isn't what it once was..."
The good news is about half the devices the I-Team found were likely law enforcement investigating crimes or our government using the devices defensively to identify certain cellphone numbers as they approach important locations, said Aaron Turner, a leading mobile security expert... The I-Team got picked up [by StingRay devices] twice off of International Drive, right near the Chinese and Israeli embassies, then got another two hits along Massachusetts Avenue near Romania and Turkey... The phones appeared to remain connected to a fake tower the longest, right near the Russian Embassy.
StringRay devices are also being used in at least 25 states by police departments, according to the ACLU. The devices were authorized by the FCC back in 2011 for "federal, state, local public safety and law enforcement officials only" (and requiring coordination with the FBI).
But back in April the Associated Press reported that "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 criminals could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages... 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 good news is about half the devices the I-Team found were likely law enforcement investigating crimes or our government using the devices defensively to identify certain cellphone numbers as they approach important locations, said Aaron Turner, a leading mobile security expert... The I-Team got picked up [by StingRay devices] twice off of International Drive, right near the Chinese and Israeli embassies, then got another two hits along Massachusetts Avenue near Romania and Turkey... The phones appeared to remain connected to a fake tower the longest, right near the Russian Embassy.
StringRay devices are also being used in at least 25 states by police departments, according to the ACLU. The devices were authorized by the FCC back in 2011 for "federal, state, local public safety and law enforcement officials only" (and requiring coordination with the FBI).
But back in April the Associated Press reported that "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 criminals could be using to track individual cellphones and intercept calls and messages... More sophisticated versions can eavesdrop on calls by forcing phones to step down to older, unencrypted 2G wireless technology. Some attempt to plant malware."
Any chances a stingray is in a public location where it could be stolen? That would make for an interesting tear down.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
blame "foreign adversaries" when caught. Nothing new under the sun.
5G will fix that, surely?
That's "good news" that most of the devices are run by American cops and TLA's? I'd rather most of the devices be run by foreign embassies. At least they don't have an interest in meddling in the lives of the average American...
Just because 40 cell phone trackers were "found" in DC area doesn't mean you, Slashdot reader, are the target. Let's face it if you are reading this you probably aren't worth the bandwidth to track.
And I certainly place myself into that kettle....
Caution: Contents under pressure
I'm amazed at just how stupid our government officials are. We should be investing in massively better technological solutions designed from the ground up to minimize the intrusiveness of modern technology rather than investing in the deployment of stingrays and other technologies. There is no reason that the next generation of cellular technology couldn't be designed differently.
Right now we subscribe to services (cellular provider) for instance rather than entirely decentralizing the technology. Each provider gets a slice provided they outbid everybody else minimizing the number of providers available and keeping the lid on us having a truly free market. Many countries even mandate the collection of subscriber info (name, address, etc) by the service providers.
What we should be doing instead of this is designing peer to peer networking technology such that there is no subscription necessary and you don't even have to really identify the the device. Rather through the use of mathematically provable anonymous peer-to-peer crypto currencies any network operator would be able to receive small payments easily for X amount of traffic sent/received. As the cellular device could randomly change its identifier and the cellular modem could be standardized in a way as to minimize fingerprinting and the modem could go into a "switched off" mode when not in active use at a semi haphazard random fashion or into a "one way" receive only mode. A network operator could have a single antenna and charge whatever they like and competition amongst the network operators in a given area would determine the ultimate price. Imagine what a truly free market would do to the cost of internet access!
Of course embassies use their own microcells - running and monitoring their own is the only way they have any assurance that somebody else isn't doing it to them. And in that line of work, you can guarantee other groups would at least be trying - and you have to worry about the host country (especially US / China / Russia / Israel / etc) tapping the cellular and telco switches.
And don't hold your breath waiting for more secure cellular communications (a reasonably straightforward exercise) - our Wise Overlords enjoy being able to snoop when they feel like it. Why do you think they're so upset about peer-to-peer encryption? They've been secretly abusing insecure standards for decades, and they want their unconsitutional toys back...
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Cell phone towers broadcast an ID, and there are only about 215,000 of them in the US.
Can this be fixed in software, by having the cell phone only communicate with known towers?
(Yes, the towers change slowly over time, but not frequently enough to be a problem. It'd be like upgrading the maps on the GPS device in your car.)
... got yer leakers right here.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Meh, it is what it is, so you waste time driving around detecting these sites and for what? Like anything will be done about? All of sudden they will just go away because you exposed them? makes for good TV, riles up the tin foil hat people that's about it.
is right twice a day
Notifying you if your're in a StingRay zone?
In the 1960's when microwaves were used to transmit phone traffic between New York and Washington diplomatic calls were routinely intercepted by the CIA. Those who imagine electronic communications are private are living in a dream world.
The good news is? Is there good news in any of this?
What the heck are you talking about? The goal of all globalists/socialists is to create a totalitarian surveillance state, because they have to force people to act against their interests and being able to either dig up or plant dirt on them is the way you do it. This is *exactly* what you would expect them to do, and exactly the same sort of thing that has been done in similar situations in the past (Gestapo, Stasi, NKVD/KGB, etc).
...supposed to get a jump on bugging the Trump/Pence 2020 campaign?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
Naa, the goal of socialists is to provide free (at the point of need) health care, ensure everyone has access to housing and can afford to eat and can live in safety.
They may also provide certain key industries that are vital for the national interest, eg roads, public transport transport, power generation/distribution, defence and policing.
Its always been a tactic of the American right to confuse socalism and totalitarianism. You can be socialist and totalitarian eg Soviet Russia, or you can be socialist and democratic eg most of Europe. You can also be capitalist and totalitarian (eg about half the middle East)
or "lawful" interception. Question is, why mobile protocols were not updated to fix the well known MITM security problem?
The D.C. area is the nexus of the world's spies. There are 177 embassies in the D.C. area. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_diplomatic_missions_in_Washington,_D.C. ) U.S. law enforcement and agency activities account for a fraction of these devices in this region. There are literally thousands of foreigners practicing tradecraft working for governments and the world's big businesses. All of these organizations have access to Stingrays and similar devices and they are using them. Everyone wants leverage. Intercepting a congressman's text of his junk to a page is priceless. It is a completely insane signal intelligence terrain.
Why don't we just take the next step: let the government run the entire cellular system. Free cell service for everybody!
J
It ignores important problems like criminal cellphone use in prisons. No one there are cowboy cell nodes like stingray.
"...doesn't mean you, Slashdot reader, are the target." Yet, is the word you forgot to add there at the end of that sentence.