41–50 of 73 posts
I think cell antennas have unique identifiers. If true, can you detect when you connect to a tower that isn't your usual tower in your usual geographic location (assuming you're being targeted at home, for example). And if there is indeed a unique id, can the fake cell take the id of a real cell and still work with the cellphone company, or would it need the cooperation of the cellphone company? (for example, the cel…
I think cell antennas have unique identifiers. If true, can you detect when you connect to a tower that isn't your usual tower in your usual geographic location (assuming you're being targeted at home, for example). And if there is indeed a unique id, can the fake cell take the id of a real cell and still work with the cellphone company, or would it need the cooperation of the cellphone company? (for example, the cel…
Here are some excerpts from the WSJ paywalled article: Cellphones are programmed to connect automatically to the strongest cell tower signal. The device being used by the U.S. Marshals Service identifies itself as having the closest, strongest signal, even though it doesn’t, and forces all the phones that can detect its signal to send in their unique registration information. Even having encryption on one’s phone, su…
In addition to the egrigious complaints citizens could make, wouldn't telecoms and cellphone manufacturers have grounds to sue over this? It sounds like these boxes are actively disrupting or reducing cell-phone service reliability by tricking devices to connect to them, despite not being a good tower.
There is precedent: amateur radio operators can use any means available to them to transmit life-critical messages when licensed methods/frequencies don't work. If that was to set up a fake cell phone tower and get phones to connect, then one could argue that one was using the frequencies legally. (IANAL; don't do this and say I said it was OK. The usual case is something like using your amateur radio to contact the coast guard if your ship is sinking.)
I think cell antennas have unique identifiers. If true, can you detect when you connect to a tower that isn't your usual tower in your usual geographic location (assuming you're being targeted at home, for example). And if there is indeed a unique id, can the fake cell take the id of a real cell and still work with the cellphone company, or would it need the cooperation of the cellphone company? (for example, the cel…
If so, should we expect that the carriers surrendered their keys to law enforcement to allow them to run fake cell towers that authentically emulate their networks?
It was not on flighttrack, no ADS-B info, and too high to see the N number.
This is the go-to defense for surveillance secrecy. However, not discussing such matters allows criminal officials to abuse these powers without repercussion.