Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
1–10 of 141 posts
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#2Wow, didn’t know EFF went so deep on investigations like this. Top notch!
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#3Over here in the EU any cellular device should contain a SIM card which must be registered to someone or some company, therefore it can be used to track the owner; is that different in the US? The article doesn't mention any SIM card present. If I discovered such a tracking device in my car I'd immediately look for the card, get its number and find the owner.
Also, it would be nice to fool the GPS through a jammer that emits false signals in order to make it report a fake location, after placing cameras at that place to record whoever shows up.
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#4Spireon bought out Inilex who bought out Sky-LINK.
So, there’s plenty of technician’s manual out there under those former and current M&A names.
Also, FCC ID is a great starting place, just don’t forget merger and acquisition as well in the business world during your RE effort.
Also identifying RF frequency in FCC filings will help narrow the cellular coverage. If it’s CDMA, then it’s obsoleted.
- https://loginping.com/inilex-gps
- https://www.automotive-fleet.com/130525/spireon-acquires-gps...
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#5Over here in the EU any cellular device should contain a SIM card which must be registered to someone or some company, therefore it can be used to track the owner; is that different in the US? The article doesn't mention any SIM card present. If I discovered such a tracking device in my car I'd immediately look for the card, get its number and find the owner. Also, it would be nice to fool the GPS through a jammer th…
Last I checked, you could activate a prepaid SIM without any proof of identity in the US. We don’t have a national ID card system. Postpaid does involve a credit check.
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#6Wow, didn’t know EFF went so deep on investigations like this. Top notch!
This is not really deep, TBH. This is 5-6 minutes of work for someone who does this habitually. They didn't even dump the firmware of the PIC running in there to share it for some fun RE.
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#7TL; DR:
> Sarah [not real name] also mentioned that the car had been transferred from another Audi dealership in Orange County, California, when she bought it. Could they be the culprits? We called the original dealership and asked if they were familiar with this hardware or if they install GPS devices in their customers' cars. The dealership told us that they used to work with a company called Sky Link to install anti-theft devices, but didn’t activate them unless the buyer paid for the service. Could this be an explanation for this rogue GPS device?
[...] Turns out, it had. The GPS device was bought by the dealership, but it was never activated. At last, we had proof that this was a device installed by the dealership.
It feels like there are several "layers" to this story, putting all of them in one probably just confuses a lot of readers. In other contexts the UART pin-outs and bit-banging would be interesting to me but I just wanted to find out whodunnit.
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#8I love that the skills I learned in the 80s are still relevant today. Interacting with serial ports. AT commands. This stuff hasn't changed much.
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#9Over here in the EU any cellular device should contain a SIM card which must be registered to someone or some company, therefore it can be used to track the owner; is that different in the US? The article doesn't mention any SIM card present. If I discovered such a tracking device in my car I'd immediately look for the card, get its number and find the owner. Also, it would be nice to fool the GPS through a jammer th…
The photo in the article shows "P/N: CDMA"
So if it was a CDMA device, then it probably doesn't use a SIM.
Re: Mystery GPS Tracker on a Supporter’s Car
#10Wow, didn’t know EFF went so deep on investigations like this. Top notch!
This is not really deep, TBH. This is 5-6 minutes of work for someone who does this habitually. They didn't even dump the firmware of the PIC running in there to share it for some fun RE.
The reporter clearly does not do this habitually, as it took them several (frustrating, from the sound of it) days to figure out what they did. Sounds like it was in large part a learning experience for them.