Americans Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy Program via Flying Cell Towers (Latest)

[Tech_Dreamer]

Here's another bombshell

@Trik'Stari

 

According to WSJ The Justice Department is scooping up data from thousands of mobile phones through devices deployed on airplanes that mimic cellphone towers, Fake Flying Cell Towers Target Fugitives, But can ID Your Phone as well..a high-tech hunt for criminal suspects that is snagging a large number of innocent Americans, according to people familiar with the operations.

 

According to the report, the federal government gathers the data from Cessna airplanes and can cover most of the U.S. population. These devices typically trick phones into sharing its location data and revealing the phone's identity.

 

 

Federal law enforcement agents reportedly fly small planes loaded with gear to spy on Americans' cell phone calls.

 

 

the planes carry a box that serves as a dummy cell phone site. That device mimics actual towers, duping nearby cell phones into connecting to it instead of a real phone company tower.

 

Local police and federal agents make widespread use of these types of devices. Public records, such as this Florida court transcript, have revealed that police use this technology to gather information about suspects.

 

Here's how ground based stingrays work..

 

 

 

An official at the Department of Justice would not confirm or deny the use of flying spoof cell towers. He said any discussion would let criminals and foreign governments "determine our capabilities and limitations any tactics used comply with federal law"

 

 

So How do they do it..?

 

These stingrays are so called dirtboxes & these are sophisticated enough to mimic a particular provider.

 

If a drug dealer under surveillance uses Verizon, for instance, then the machine pretends to be a Verizon cell tower and connects only to all the carrier's subscribers in the area. Once a target's phone is identified (at which point, connections to other people's phones are dropped),

 

the box can pinpoint his location within 3 meters and down to a specific room.the Cessnas fly out regularly to target a handful of criminals per flight.
 

 

So your iPhone/samsung is encrypted? Why worry then? Turns out when the phones are connected, they then collect their unique registration information, as well as their general locations  and no encryption is strong enough to prevent them from doing so.(also deciphering them locally if unencrypted)

 

 

 

Obviously, the more densely populated the target area is, the more data the boxes collect, but it's unclear what steps are in place to safeguard innocent people's information. It's also unclear at this point if they've ever used the newer dirtboxes' capabilities, which include jamming phones and extracting messages, photos and other data remotely.

 

 

 

 

"This is a disturbing progression of the federal government's use of this technology, What's different about this is that it vastly increases the number of completely innocent bystanders whose information is being swept up by law enforcement."

   

                                                               - Nathan Freed Wessler, American Civil Liberties Union attorney in New York

 

as always Police agencies refuse to disclose information about the devices. Law enforcement agencies have non-disclosure agreements

 

FYI The original source is undisclosed & will remain as it is..

 

Please do Leave your thoughts & comments down Below.., Technology can be amazing sometimes things like this are somewhat essential, but humans have been unpredictable & history has shown it..it will be interesting where the line between being human & a psycho maniac cross over...

 

Bonus:

Link:

http://online.wsj.com/articles/americans-cellphones-targeted-in-secret-u-s-spy-program-1415917533

http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/13/technology/security/federal-planes-spy/index.html

[OriginalPromise]

I gave too much fucks to the point where I can't give anymore.

I'll just stick with Tor and live in a cave.

[Guest Kloaked]

Good thing I don't have a cell phone.

 

Relevant video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDSGh8i4hcs

[Trik'Stari]

Well, time to get rid of my cell phone all together.

[PhantomJaguarr]

George Orwell was right

[ObscureMammal]

Another reason not to let them use drones

I'm sure it would be cheaper for them to use a drone than a Cessna 

[Tech_Dreamer]

Another reason not to let them use drones

I'm sure it would be cheaper for them to use a drone than a Cessna 

they will  be , the leak source report i read shows that this was implemented from the from year 1990 or so.. pretty sure now they will & already have started using drones...

[Psykomantis00]

We're due for an old fashioned revolution. You know, blood in the streets etc. 

[martinrox1568]

Yeah this has been known for years. It's just them triangulating your call by basically measuring your reception. They can't listen to the call

[jadar]

Why can't they verify phone towers the same way they verify binaries before launching them..? That way ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile can sign their own towers and you can set your phone to only connect to "Verified" towers. It would even still work for smaller carriers like Ting or Tracfone because they run on the networks of the larger providers. Seems pretty simple to me..

[WolfDeville]

lel

[qwertywarrior]

Why can't they verify phone towers the same way they verify binaries before launching them..? That way ATT, Verizon, and T-Mobile can sign their own towers and you can set your phone to only connect to "Verified" towers. It would even still work for smaller carriers like Ting or Tracfone because they run on the networks of the larger providers. Seems pretty simple to me..

what these devices do is let phones change to 2G and can decrypt them on the go

Tmobile is going to fix this soon by using higher level encryption  on 2G

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/240312-t-mobiles-encryption-upgrade-makes-eavesdropping-on-its-2g-network-harder/

 

another way to protect ur self from this is either get a cryptophone which has made fixes to the baseband on its phones

or try this if your on android

https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/

[jadar]

what these devices do is let phones change to 2G and can decrypt them on the go

Tmobile is going to fix this soon by using higher level encryption  on 2G

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/240312-t-mobiles-encryption-upgrade-makes-eavesdropping-on-its-2g-network-harder/

 

another way to protect ur self from this is either get a cryptophone which has made fixes to the baseband on its phones

or try this if your on android

https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/

Yes but my point was don't even let the phone connect to the tower unless the tower is signed and verified.

[Tonylu1595]

I don't see whats wrong with this if this is targeted spying.

[jadar]

I don't see whats wrong with this if this is targeted spying.

Yes technically it's not again the law, to my knowledge. This one is totally legal. It's pretty much the good old police work, going out and gathering information. It's a lot better than collecting all your data ever from everywhere.