How spies can use your cellphone to find you – and eavesdrop on your calls and texts too

Discussion in 'privacy problems' started by hawki, May 30, 2018.

  1. hawki

    hawki Registered Member

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    "Surveillance systems that track the locations of cellphone users and spy on their calls, texts and data streams are being turned against Americans as they roam the country and the world, say security experts and U.S. officials.

    Federal officials acknowledged the privacy risk to Americans in a previously undisclosed letter from the Department of Homeland Security ... [to a U.S. Senator] last week, saying they had received reports that 'nefarious actors may have exploited' global cellular networks 'to target the communications of American citizens.'

    The letter, dated May 22 and obtained by The Washington Post, described surveillance systems that tap into a global messaging system that allows cellular customers to move from network to network as they travel. The decades-old messaging system, called SS7, has little security, allowing intelligence agencies and some criminal gangs to spy on unwitting targets — based on nothing more than their cellphone numbers..."

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...070ef53f315_story.html?utm_term=.7208a9fa0b35
     
  2. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    SS7 has so little security that, if you're a person of interest, almost anybody knowing your mobile number can spy on you. It's probably more insecure than unencrypted emails are.
     
  3. guest

    guest Guest

    Stingray phone stalker tech used near White House, SS7 abused to steal US citizens' data
    June 1, 2018
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/06/01/wyden_ss7_stingray_fcc_homeland_security/
     
  4. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    How a 40-Year-Old Mobile Security Flaw Puts Consumers at Risk
    https://securityintelligence.com/news/how-a-40-year-old-mobile-security-flaw-puts-consumers-at-risk/
     
  5. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    They mean "unauthorized cybercriminals", I think ;)

    I mean, we know that telecom providers sell data to third parties that we might as well consider to be cybercriminals.
     
  6. guest

    guest Guest

    Federal Judge scolds FBI agent for improper stingray use
    July 18, 2018
    https://www.scmagazine.com/federal-judge-scolds-fbi-agent-for-improper-stingray-use/article/781734/
     
  7. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Damn, an honest judge who's on to their games!
     
  8. guest

    guest Guest

    In Cellphone Spying, Stingrays Are A Red Herring
    October 2, 2018
    https://www.scmagazine.com/home/news/in-cellphone-spying-stingrays-are-a-red-herring/
     
  9. deBoetie

    deBoetie Registered Member

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    Having worked on POTS systems from their early electronic days, I can tell you for a fact that they were designed from the outset to permit "lawful intercept" and on the presumption that the PTTs (which were effectively offshoots of government) were trusted agents in doing so.

    That this illustrates the harm of attempting to force intercept on internet communications and attacking end to end encryption seems to escape them as a mechanism of harm to their own citizens.

    My take is that they are both lying and incompetent by the way. Very competent in getting some people to believe green is red or something. The old Lincoln phrase comes to mind.
     
  10. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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