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Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

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Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#71

Post by exikyut »

Scoundreller wrote: post #58
madengr wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not knowing how to find them, is a load of crap. You can certainly find them, it just takes expensive equipment and time.

If it were me, the antenna would be a few hundred feet away from the equipment. And the antenna wouldn’t be anything like an antenna, just something that looks like a lawn-chair. And I’d move it every day or two. And definitely not run it 24h!!! Could still be found, but good luck.

Hmm, then you need a super-mega-amplifier tacked on to boost the signal over the cable (AFAIK, the frequencies used really like short antenna runs).

So that then means a super-thick faraday cage around the actual device, and probably somewhat noteworthy power consumption (a battery certainly wouldn't be enough).

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#72

Post by dannyw »

ohazi wrote: post #35
guelo wrote: post #26

It was the responsibility of the FCC to have never allowed these devices to manufactured, but as typical they fell for the police exemption excuse. Now they'll be abused more and more.

The protocol should have required enough authentication to make it impossible to manufacture these devices without also having a blessed, revocable key from the carrier you're snooping on. The FCC could have easily had their police exemption without also providing access to your average HAM, any reasonably competent hobbyist, and the security services of every other nation on the planet. Security on cellular networks…

Aren’t Stingrays basically fixed with LTE?

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#73

Post by dannyw »

natch wrote: post #70
robocat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just buy a cheap second-hand Android phone - has mostly advantages.

Yeah, great. Get a phone that secretly sends your text messages to a collection point in China. https://www.theverge.com/2016/11/15/13636072/budget-android-...

Doesn’t matter if it’s a $50 burner phone to detect snooping.

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#74

Post by dsl »

UncleEntity wrote: post #43
Exuma wrote: post #36

Does this apply to iPhones? So someone could put this outside my house and listen to all my iPhone calls?

They can't listen to your calls without cracking the keys shared between the phone company and your phone...though I do remember reading a while back that "someone" managed to steal the list from sim card manufacturers on more than one occasion.

That is not true. Stingray's are cell towers and phones trust them. The device just downgrades to A5/2 (export grade) encryption, or broadcasts that it does not support encryption at all.

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#75

Post by torstenvl »

AlexCoventry wrote: post #67
torstenvl wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because not every place is a shining example of liberal democracy like the United States. Diplomacy requires representing your country, which sometimes requires advocating against the preferred policies of your negotiating partners. In some places, if you were subject to their laws, that would get you killed.

Makes sense. It would be hard to find willing diplomats without that protection.

Just imagine trying to exert diplomatic pressure on Erdogan while subject to Turkish law, for example.

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#76

Post by toomuchtodo »

throwaway9803 wrote: post #63

This is old news to anyone living here and paying attention. I've been tracking suspicious cell sites for the past three years in my DC metro neighborhood with an old Android phone and some prosumer software. Some of the sites are mobile, but most of the ones I found were stationarity, and could be easily identified once you know what to look for. I'm pretty sure some of them are seriously degrading cell data/vocie q…

You should report their approximate location to the FCC.

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#77

Post by Taniwha »

mdesq wrote: post #64
steve_musk wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially considering the POTUS uses a standard android phone.

I believe he switched to an iPhone. [1] I was at an analytics event this year where they were analyzing his tweets based on the originating platform. 1. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/donald-...

I'm more under the impression that there are several people who tweet using that account (you'll remember one of his lawyers claiming they did one time he really screwed up) using different platforms

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#79

Post by saudioger »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #76
throwaway9803 wrote: post #63

This is old news to anyone living here and paying attention. I've been tracking suspicious cell sites for the past three years in my DC metro neighborhood with an old Android phone and some prosumer software. Some of the sites are mobile, but most of the ones I found were stationarity, and could be easily identified once you know what to look for. I'm pretty sure some of them are seriously degrading cell data/vocie q…

You should report their approximate location to the FCC.

so they could continue to do nothing?

Re: Devices Which Track Cellphones, Intercept Calls Found All Over DC, MD, VA

#80

Post by toomuchgov »

tajen wrote: post #46
CamperBob2 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Control of 'manufacturing' was never going to happen. They would literally have to prohibit the sale of high-speed DACs and ADCs to civilians. If you think the War on Drugs was an expensive boondoggle, try keeping LTC2216s out of my hands. :-P However, it is the responsibility of the FCC to not throw up their hands and say "Duh, we don't know how to find 'em." They have one job -- regulating the use of the RF spectru…

Or have private-key encoding. That’s the case for HDMI: No-one can manufacture devices that aren’t approved. Of course the funny part is, it’s designed so pirates can only send HDMI output to approved screens (=not recording devices), but for backwards comparibility, they has to allow HDMI-to-SVGA adapter with decoding, so the breach is wide open. But you get the intent: HDMI was supposed to bea fully-encrypted stand…

I thought that was HDCP?
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