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Signs of Sophisticated Cellphone Spying Found Near White House, US Officials Say (washingtonpost.com)
A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year. From a report: A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22. The letter didn't specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year. The discovery bolsters years of independent research suggesting that foreign intelligence agencies use sophisticated interception technology to spy on officials working within the hub of federal power in the nation's capital. Experts in surveillance technology say that IMSI catchers -- sometimes known by one popular brand name, StingRay -- are a standard part of the tool kit for many foreign intelligence services, including for such geopolitical rivals as Russia and China.
What a waste of resources. You can just follow the main troublemaker on twitter.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Otherwise known as "Stingrays".
Yes, I'm not surprised. I'm only surprised that other people seem to be surprised. The local TV news even reported this weeks ago: https://news.slashdot.org/stor...
It is certainly one group of feds spying on another.
No, I expect it's every single spy agency of every single country in the world. I'd be surprised if other countries don't do it.
...but come to think of it, I bet the if you don't care who listens to your conversations, Washington DC probably has the best cell coverage in the world, what with all the intercepting cell towers out there in addition to the legit ones.
https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/04/03/192200/us-suspects-listening-devices-in-washington
https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/05/19/1813208/40-cellphone-tracking-devices-discovered-throughout-washington
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/03/18/2312217/cbs-reports-suspicious-cell-phone-tower-activity-in-washington-dc
https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/09/02/2315215/mysterious-phony-cell-towers-found-throughout-us
And why the fuck can't the same tags be used for the same story?
That's not a problem.
Nobody would be stupid enough to talk about anything important to national security on an unsecured cellphone, right?
I love how this is only an issue when the folks in charge are being spied upon by the very tech they're using to spy on the rest of us :|
Though, to be honest, it's a good thing.
Perhaps we'll see some changes as to how the phones determine what towers they will / will not connect with vs blindly connecting to any of them.
To check what is telling other people?
Of course, given the President's willingness to a) speak on unsecured lines and b) piss off everyone except the Russians on any given day I would expect a list of possible countries who do this to match the membership list of the UN.
there's spying including use of cellphones in the nation's capital.
mfwright@batnet.com
If the spy agencies of China, Russia, India, etc AREN'T doing this, they aren't doing their job. If the heads of their intelligence agencies have neglected to do this, they should be fired.
It is plausible that British GCHQ is operating these while NSA looks the other way. Historically that's how they've gotten around laws prohibiting spying on US citizens.