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Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

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Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#31
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

The message you quoted appears in the left-hand screenshot [1] showing notifications, not the one on the right containing a dialog box.

[1] http://i.stack.imgur.com/7nCMFm.png

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#32
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The baseband still has access to your battery when your phone is off. Citation needed? Because the definition of off, for most phones, is exactly that.

[deleted]

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The baseband still has access to your battery when your phone is off. Citation needed? Because the definition of off, for most phones, is exactly that.

Good point, asking for a citation. It's an extraordinary claim and so requires something to back it up. A quick search turns up this quote from a 2013 Washington Post story "By September 2004, a new NSA technique enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were turned off. JSOC troops called this “The Find,” and it gave them thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored insur…

That WaPo news has been debunked:

http://blog.erratasec.com/2013/07/no-nsa-cant-track-phones-e...

There is NSA method called 'implant', but it requires installation of software (possibly in the firmware). It's not so easy and it can't be used in large scale.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#34
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> The baseband still has access to your battery when your phone is off. Citation needed? Because the definition of off, for most phones, is exactly that.

This was one of the things revealed by the Snowden leaks.

'Dreamy Smurf handles power management, which according to The Guardian includes "an ability to stealthily activate a phone that is apparently turned off"'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WARRIOR_PRIDE

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#35

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?

>If not, would it be possible to build a device to flood them with fake/spoofed IMSIs?

Technical ability wise, yes.

Legally, no. The Mobile Telephones (Re-Programming) Act 2002 [0] makes spoofing IMSI, even that of your own, illegal in the UK.

[0] https://www.staffordshire.police.uk/info_advice/crime_preven...

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#36
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.

Government officials have data mining algorithms that detect patterns in cellphone disappearances.

Big city with millions of people. Two or more cellphones disappear when they approach the same part of the city. When this happens few times, you might get flagged.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#37
post #11
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…

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…

In the US, most mobile traffic is proxied, and filtering/rate limiting is implemented there.

No exotic measures are required to do this.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#38
post #28

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?

Well, as they're officially not used at all in the UK, there's been no need to create any legislation around them, so while this could be an offence under the communications act, you could argue (probably unsuccessfully) that you're actually providing a service to customers by taking their data to protect them from themselves, as they may be terrorists and not yet know it.

Re: Signs of Secret Phone Surveillance Across London

#40
post #17

Same thing found in Oslo about a year ago. Police Security Service denied they existed though. If I remember correctly these were mostly located around parliament and other government institutions as well as in the embassy area. Report in english: http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/New-report-Clear-sig...

They denied they existed while showing no apparent concern before having had time to verify anything == they knew exactly who were doing what.

Given that Police Security Service has a decades long history of illegal political surveillance what shocked me is how muted the political reaction was.

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