Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

news.vice.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 104 posts

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#21

Post by scott77 »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #18
m_t wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not getting these warning on my Nexus 4 running the default Android build. The only time I see them is when I use my own VPN connection. Do you think it might get triggered on your phone by the presence of the anti-porn filter that UK mobile provider have? For instance, when trying to access "adult" website (I use quotes as sometimes, even non porno website gets filtered out) you end up on your mobile provider pa…

Some details regarding the message here: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/61750/android-ki...

This is not the message I've seen. There was nothing about TLS, trusted CA installation, emails, apps, or websites.

I wish I've taken a screenshot of it!

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#22

Post by [deleted] »

razakel wrote: post #20
scott77 wrote: post #8

Interestingly enough, during last trip to London, my phone (Nexus 5 running Cyanogenmod 12.1) was able to somehow detect something fishy and warned me several times "Network may be monitored by an unknown 3rd party". Among others, I've seen this warning two times out of two when passing by Cheapside/St Martin's corner - next to the St Paul's Cathedral. At the time I just dismissed this as some tinfoil hat developer a…

Check your certificates. I saw this when I installed a Fiddler root certificate.

[deleted]

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#23

Post by acqq »

jritchie wrote: post #16

Do IMSI catchers have any way of verifying the intercepted IMSIs are legitimate? If not, would it be possible to build a device to flood them with fake/spoofed IMSIs?

"IMSI catcher" is a device:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher

It doesn't have to "verify" what it collects.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#24

Post by kencausey »

mattkevan wrote: post #7
sveiss wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have thought simply switching the phone off would be easier? Much better on your battery life too, if the phone turns the transmit power up to try and reach a base station.

If your phone doesn't have a removable battery, how do you know if it's really off?

Not entirely relevant but note that if a power switch does not have a mechanical difference between the off and on state then there must be an active component that at the very least must monitor the power button to detect presses. I don't really know, but it seems likely that in a smart phone the SOC is used to monitor the power button and it is therefore only ever in a very low power state (sans battery removal). That doesn't of course mean that any radio components are receiving power.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#25

Post by mseebach »

simonvc wrote: post #4

Richard from Privacy International pointed me at these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00RRL4XLW It's a faraday cage for you phone. Pop it in and you disappear instantly.

Does it work? I bought an RFID-blocking wallet for my passport a while ago, but when I put my work access badge in it, I could open doors just fine.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#26

Post by jritchie »

acqq wrote: post #23
jritchie wrote: post #16

Do IMSI catchers have any way of verifying the intercepted IMSIs are legitimate? If not, would it be possible to build a device to flood them with fake/spoofed IMSIs?

"IMSI catcher" is a device: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher It doesn't have to "verify" what it collects.

Yes, but the value of the collected data is much reduced if you can't distinguish between legitimate IMSIs and spoofed IMSIs of devices that were never actually there.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#27

Post by sveiss »

alex_duf wrote: post #6
sveiss wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd have thought simply switching the phone off would be easier? Much better on your battery life too, if the phone turns the transmit power up to try and reach a base station.

I wouldn't feel safe until the battery is removed (which unfortunately isn't possible on most phones anymore) The baseband still has access to your battery when your phone is off.

If your phone is lying to you about being switched off, then it's already compromised (and you're probably under some highly targeted surveillance already). If I had any evidence this had happened to me, I'd get rid of the phone instead of trusting it under any circumstances.

For the example of a protest march, if you're a participant or even a bystander walking home wanting to avoid being caught up in a surveillance dragnet, turning your phone off should be sufficient. You'd probably want to take stronger measures if you were involved in organising the protest, though.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#28

Post by chippy »

madaxe_again wrote: post #9

Watched the documentary last night. Given that these things are cheap, would any fellow Brits be interested in clubbing together and acquiring one and installing it in or around parliament? I'm sure there would be plenty of buyers for the call records of MPS.

Isn't it illegal to have one and run one in the UK if not licensed?

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#29

Post by darkr »

> A VICE News investigation has found evidence that sophisticated surveillance equipment that spies on people's phones is being used across London

That the Met (and other police forces) regularly use IMSI catchers is not new information - here's a ~5 year old Guardian article on the subject:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/oct/30/metropolitan-polic...

Post reply on HN