> stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked. Can android, iOS, or an open phone os prevent 2g communication?
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Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
61–70 of 215 posts
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#62> stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked. Can android, iOS, or an open phone os prevent 2g communication?
They could but they don't, and it's been known all along that these downgrade attacks are devastating to security and very practical. Complicity?
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#63Hey. Someone who briefly worked on the Stingray team here. I left the company that develops the stingray (who’s name is mentioned in the article but I shall not say it) because I didn’t feel comfortable with the ethics of how it could potentially be easily abused without legal permission and/or repercussion. I fear these technologies will become more commonly used against Americans by low level law enforcement withou…
Thank you for walking away. I hope more people will follow your example and question their work. Not only at Harris Corporation, but in every part of what is called surveillance capitalism.
Is it enough that a few people like this simply turn their backs and walk away to different work? I would think their vacancies would be quickly and easily filled.
Is there really a shortage of people willing and able to do this kind of work for these companies and government agencies? I'm asking because I truly don't know.
And if not, could we think of some other ways people in these positions could exert some influence for change, even if it's only after they leave those jobs?
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#64I used to work for DRT, they make the "dirtbox" mentioned in the article. I would really encourage journalists to dig more into this company and their products.
> I would really encourage journalists to dig more into this company and their products.
I guess journalists' disinterest in invasive surveillance is because reporting on it is harder, than reprinting the same 7 headlines as every other news org.
It's been a bit better since Edward Snowden dragged news orgs away from authoritarian-friendly journalism and into the surveillance age. However, journalists still seem to do about the bare minimum, while their reporting gives LEO/Gov endless benefit of the doubt.
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#65Pro-tip: If you want fairly good OPSEC when going to a protest, get a burner Android phone, put it on airplane mode with WIFI only. Then purchase a couple of Comcast / Xfiniti logins off the web, and use those to connect to "xfiniti-wifi" hotspots. Most cities have them, the speeds are fairly decent too. We're truly living in the panopticon
Through the pandemic, Xfinity is offering anyone free guest access, so for at least the next few months, you don't need to even buy logins. https://corporate.comcast.com/press/releases/comcast-extends...
Note, this only works on the xfinity "public wifi stations" rather than the xfinity ssid's from home routers.
If you want to access the home router networks, you still need to pay for an account.
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#66It's even possible for phones to be tracked while turned off: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-gr... https://slate.com/technology/2013/07/nsa-can-reportedly-trac...
How is this possible?
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
On Android, enter \ #\ #4636#\ #\ in the dialer. Then select "LTE only." (This will prevent 3G as well as 2G) edit: You gotta be kidding me with this formatting. Replace backslashes with asterisks.
My apologies if this comes out garbled. Trying something... ∗#∗#4636#∗#∗
How?
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
On Android, enter \ #\ #4636#\ #\ in the dialer. Then select "LTE only." (This will prevent 3G as well as 2G) edit: You gotta be kidding me with this formatting. Replace backslashes with asterisks.
That's because it is for MarkDown. So you can do things like this . But you can do * this * and it is fine. The difference is spacing.
In normal Markdown you can escape with \ but it doesn't work on HN for some reason.
Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone
#69Pro-tip: If you want fairly good OPSEC when going to a protest, get a burner Android phone, put it on airplane mode with WIFI only. Then purchase a couple of Comcast / Xfiniti logins off the web, and use those to connect to "xfiniti-wifi" hotspots. Most cities have them, the speeds are fairly decent too. We're truly living in the panopticon
Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, but if you're arrested, what's stopping the cops from matching the phones MAC to public wifi connections?