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That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

cybersect.substack.com

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Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#4

Post by mrb »

phh wrote: post #3

I'm curious why they are using actual modems rather than just doing it with VoWifi that merely requires a SIM card reader (pretty much just an UART)

They do this so they are harder to track & block. If they were sending over Wifi then they have to hide the IP, so they have to use VPNs, which are often blocked, etc. But with their solution they have a standard SIM on the standard cellular network, so it's nearly indistinquishable from a regular cellphone.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#5

Post by immibis »

First thing I thought when reading it. This story makes no sense. Nothing they mentioned in the article is actually illegal. Having lots of phones (even in a rack-mount form factor) isn't illegal. Even if the phone network could conceivably be DoSed with that many phones all calling at once, it's not illegal unless you actually do that or intend to do it. And their other justification was that this equipment could be used to send anonymous or encrypted communications - that's not illegal either. Even this government hasn't gotten to the point of making encryption illegal.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#6

Post by privatelypublic »

phh wrote: post #3

I'm curious why they are using actual modems rather than just doing it with VoWifi that merely requires a SIM card reader (pretty much just an UART)

Among other things... having hundreds of calls and texts onramping from the same IP would be a rather large red flag.

I'm a little surprised that a behavioral analysis didn't flag these anyway. Probably did, just the networks don't care as long as they get their cut.

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#8

Post by gruez »

privatelypublic wrote: post #6
phh wrote: post #3

I'm curious why they are using actual modems rather than just doing it with VoWifi that merely requires a SIM card reader (pretty much just an UART)

Among other things... having hundreds of calls and texts onramping from the same IP would be a rather large red flag. I'm a little surprised that a behavioral analysis didn't flag these anyway. Probably did, just the networks don't care as long as they get their cut.

>having hundreds of calls and texts onramping from the same IP would be a rather large red flag.

Use VPNs? Surely paying for some subscriptions at $3/month is cheaper than renting an apartment in manhattan?

Re: That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus

#9

Post by ale42 »

gruez wrote: post #8
privatelypublic wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among other things... having hundreds of calls and texts onramping from the same IP would be a rather large red flag. I'm a little surprised that a behavioral analysis didn't flag these anyway. Probably did, just the networks don't care as long as they get their cut.

>having hundreds of calls and texts onramping from the same IP would be a rather large red flag. Use VPNs? Surely paying for some subscriptions at $3/month is cheaper than renting an apartment in manhattan?

You'd probably need thousands of residential IP addresses to pass under the radar with so many SIM cards.
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