I started this page after reading the on line article Meet the machines that steal your phone’s data. It mentions a number of electronic devices intended to covertly collect data from cell (mobile) phones. This is similar to the metadata (Wiki) collected on all land line phone calls. In the two books by James Bamford (Ref 1, Ref 2) about NSA operations after 9/11 he goes into how they used phone company billing data (date, time call started, called and calling numbers, data time call ended) starting with the phone numbers of the hijackers and working outward maybe 6 levels of separation to everyone who they called or were called by. Many of these calls were to people not involved in 9/11 such as pizza orders, but others were related to the 9/11 conspiracy. Note that the meta data enables "traffic analysis" (Wiki). These methods were developed and refined in W.W. II especially for transmissions where the body of the text was hidden by cryptography.
The spying on cell phones was well under way prior to 9/11 and was becoming a problem for the NSA, i.e. they were in the process of decreasing spying on U.S. citizens when they were inside the U.S. But that changed after 9/11 because they realized that terrorists had been operating inside the U.S. for years as part of the 9/11 plot. So today we're far beyond the "1984" (Wiki) level of government spying on it's own citizens.
911 Call Location
Landline telephones have their number associated with a location so that if you call 911 the call center immediately knows where you are. But when cell phones came out there was no way to know where the caller was located, hence the e911 (Wiki) system. GSM (2G, Wiki) and UTMS (3G, Wiki) cell phones use Radio Resource Location Services Protocol (Wiki) to meet the e911 requirement, but this protocol has no authentication so anyone can query these phones and find out where they are.
It looks like E-CellID (Wiki) and other ways of meeting the e911 requirement for LTE (4G, Wiki) do not use authentication.
I think this is the basis of the below Harris cell phone location products.
Digital Data
In the old days when you digitized something it was done with a simple Analog to Digital Converter (Wiki:ADC). The problem is that the amount of data is the product of the recording time, the number of bits and the sample rate. A 600 MB CD-ROM could only hold about the same number of songs as a phonograph record. That same CD-ROM today can hold thousands of mp3 music files.
But now there all kinds of compression algorithms, like mp3 (Wiki), that compress the amount of space needed to store voice or data so it takes up about 10 times or less space.
Most things digital like cell phones, music files, etc. have all been compressed to save space or bandwidth and so are already in a format that minimizes the storage requirements.
So now NSA can just store (W
The Intercept: Your Car is Spying on You, and a CBP Contract Shows the Risks, May 3 2021 - In addition to the car's "black box", i.e. flight recorder there's also the connection to your cell phone.
In the same podcast, LeMere also recounted the company pulling data from a car rented at BWI Marshall Airport outside Washington, D.C.: “We had a Ford Explorer … we pulled the system out, and we recovered 70 phones that had been connected to it. All of their call logs, their contacts and their SMS history, as well as their music preferences, songs that were on their device, and some of their Facebook and Twitter things as well. … And it’s quite comical when you sit back and read some of the the text messages.”I remember reading about a proposed OBD-III standard and how California rejected it because of privacy concerns. In that story was an example of a Canadian found guilty when his car's flight recorder data showed that he was breaking the law at the time of the accident.
The old analog phone system had a problem with in-band signaling (Wiki: Blue Box) that allowed people to make free calls to anywhere in the world. And to do other nefarious things like call forwarding (protecting bookies and other criminal activity).
The current SS7 electronic switches (Wiki) that are the heart of the world's telephone system, including cell/smart phones has a problem now. It's related to the use of internet protocol inside the system without knowing if the data is authentic. This allows a hacker to infiltrate the system.
The Guardian: SS7 hack explained: what can you do about it?-
The Intercept : Sen. Ron Wyden Talks Trump-Russia, “Warrantless Backdoor Queries” and Hacking of U.S. Phone System -
FCC: CSRIC: Working Group 10, Legacy Systems Risk Reductions, Final Report, March 2017 -
In Aug 2017 stories have come out relating to people who have Bitcoins (Wiki) being hacked and their accounts cleared out. Some of these people knew they were being targeted and were using two factor authentication (Wiki) where a code is sent to their cell phone that's needed for on line access to their account. The thief used social engineering (Wiki, Kevin Mitnick) to convince the service provider to give them access from a different number, maybe a sob story of some sort. The thief may need to make hundreds of calls to tech support to find a moronic tech who grants that access. Once that happens the bit coin owner is locked out of his account and can watch as it's cleaned out.
NYT: Identity Thieves Hijack Cellphone Accounts to Go After Virtual Currency, 21 Aug 2017, Sam Biddle -
A better form of authentication is needed.
These are hardware attacks on cell phones. Here's a separate web page for one of the hardware devices.
Orion Electronics Ltd. Cellular Base Station ST616-CBS - fake cell tower
Stingray (Wiki)
Your cell phone thinks this is a cell tower keeping track of you so that you can place or receive a call. (See: Orion Electronics Ltd. Cellular Base Station ST616-CBS)
But it does not do that, all it does is record your IMSI (Wiki) / ESN (Wiki), your GPS coordinates if your phone has these along with it's location, time and date.
Note: this type of data can be archived just like license plate location, date, time and direction of travel and called up from a data base.
For example where was John Doe on this date or who was in the area on some date, etc.
This is not a "tower" it's just a small box and is connected to a small whip antenna placed on top of a car or van, or even a covert cell phone antenna (maybe one built into a rear view mirror). Also is connected to a computing device that can log the data like a smart phone or laptop via a USB cable.
I'm guessing another mode of operation is to act as a cell site by connecting to a land line or a real cell phone. That way when the mark makes a call you can hear both sides of the conversation and the mark doesn't know he's being tapped.
The Intercept:
Feds Hunted Down An Undocumented Immigrant Using Controversial Phone Tracker by Sam Biddle, May 19, 2017
A Secret Catalogue of Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone by Jeremy Scahill & Margot Williams, Dec 17, 2015
Michael Cohen investigation involved secretive "Triggerfish" tracking device - CBS March 19, 2019 - used to locate his cell phones while he was staying in hotel.
Kingfish
Like the stingray, but battery powered and smaller/lighter. Can be carried in a briefcase and controlled using BlueTooth (Wiki), like from a smart phone or laptop.
Gossamer
This is a handheld unit that does the same data capture as the Stingray, but also perform a denial-of-service attack (Wiki) so that a targeted phone can not receive or make calls/SMS messages.
FishHawk
This is an option for the Stingray phone tracking system that allows it to monitor GSM cell phone calls (i.e. it breaks the encryption used to "secure" GSM phone calls.
Triggerfish
This is similar to the Stingray, but can provide the location of a very large number of phones that are in the immediate area of it's antenna. This would be good in areas where there are a lot of cell phone users like a big city main intersection.
Amberjack
This is a circular phased array antenna (Wiki) that comes in various models that cover different combinations of cell phone frequency bands. This type of antenna can be aimed in a new location almost instantaneously and so can be used to track to locate cell phones or base stations very quickly. It works with any of the above data collection receivers. Comes with magnets for easy attachment to a car roof.
Harpoon
This is a range extending amplifier. It probably not only increases the transmit power but also contains a low noise receive amplifier and so should be located close to the antenna. The receiver can be located some distance from this box without degrading the signal.
Porpoise (ISN)
Is laptop-based, GSM Silent SMS Monitoring System with Network and Handset capabilities (Ref 3). It's a software package used in conjunction with a GSM phone. Sold as a USB thumb drive.
Hailstorm
This software package allows the user to link to all the telecommunications carriers and monitor calls. It's used in conjunction with Pen-Link (Company web page) and KEYW software (probably to break the encryption on GSM calls).
Telephone Pen Recorder
The patent by Samuel B. Morse for a telegraph system (Ref 4) included a "Register" that was a clockwork mechanism that pulled a strip of paper tape under an ink pen that marked dots or dashes. Later it was found that a good telegraph operator could turn his back on the "Register" and decode the dots and dashes by the sound they made so the "Register" was replaced with a Telegraph Sounder.
When the telephone system switched from operators to the use of dials the "Register" found a new application as the "Pen Register" (Wiki, Bell System KS-3106). It was placed across the telephone line (typically by the police or FBI) and when the phone went off hook the motor was started and the pen would record the dial pulses of the outgoing call. When the phone when back on hook the motor stopped. So you got the number dialed and the length of the call.
The Pen Register looks pretty much identical to the early telegraph versions and also to the versions used in fire houses that record the code from call boxes (Wiki, Gamewell). A similar item is called a Trap and Trace Device (Wiki) and works on modern phones. It captures the caller ID (Wiki) i.e. the phone number of the incoming call.
I'm guessing the company "Pen-Link" (Wiki) chose their name based on this idea.
Malicious Software Upgrade
There have been rumors that the NSA/FBI has incorporated a "Feature" in the software that controls smart phones that allows turning on the microphone and or camera on the phone remotely without giving any indication to the user that this has been done. This is similar to software that does the same thing to a desktop or laptop computer that's already known to exist.
Fast Follower
"For example, one NSA program, code-named Fast Follower, was developed to allow the NSA to identify who might have been assigned to tail American case officers at stations overseas. By correlating an officer’s cellphone signals to those of foreign nationals in the same city, the NSA is able to figure out whether anyone is moving in tandem with the U.S. officer." Ref 5 -
The New York Times has had several articles about tracking cell phones.
Some of the court documents of those charged in the Jan 6 Insurrection of the Capitol have plots of their physical location based on data from their cell phones. Also some of the people thought that they had "erased" data on their cell phones, but that data was recovered. Note when a computer "deletes" something it only deletes the pointer to the file. The data is still there. So it's not difficult to un-delete.
The NSA has for some time been collecting a lot of data on pretty much everything. Much of it is stored in a warehouse code named Bumblehive in Utah (Ref 6) (Wiki).
FASCIA may be the NSA code word for location metadata. NUCLEON may be the code word for the voice database. Any phone call (in the world?) in the past 30 days may be replayed using RETRO tool.
These tips came from an article in the Guardian.
1. Google Takeout Tool - you can see what info they have collected about you - not clear how to delete it
2. avoid internet connected devices - most have poor to no security
5. 1234 is not an acceptable password nor is "password"
6. Check if you have been pwned - haveibeenpwned.com - but all this means is that your info from the listed sites is known to someone else, so change you password there or cancel your account
Ways to bug a room, spy on a computer monitor,
Part of the Snowden leak.
Homebrew NSA Bugs by Brian Benchoff -
Crypto Museum - NSA ANT - LoudAuto -
7180402 Phase modulation in RF tag, Curtis Lee Carrender, Ronald W. Gilbert, Battelle Memorial Inst, 2005-04-21 - "A radio frequency (RF) communication system employs phase-modulated backscatter signals for RF communication from an RF tag to an interrogator."
There are a number of patents with Carrender as inventor and Battelle as assignee. Probably closely related technology.
US 5001772 Power pack with concealed radio transmitter for portable cellular telephone, Jack N. Holcomb, Konrad K. Pangratz, Round Rock Research, 1991-03-19, - places a bug in battery pack.
US 5687196 ARange and bearing tracking system with multipath rejection (Harris) Sep 30, 1994 - chirp signal
US 5960047 A System and method for transmitting information signals (Harris)Sep 30, 1994 - for tracking base and remote
US 6292665 B1 Geolocation of cellular phone using supervisory audio tone transmitted from single base station (Harris)
Aimed at e911, but useful for the above applications.
US 6795019 B2 Method and system for calibrating wireless location systems, (Harris) Jun 25, 2001 -
EP 2637034 A1Location identification of a portable electronic device based on characteristics of an operating environment of the portable electronic device (Harris)
Mar 9, 2012 - "The operating environment characteristics may include sensor values, visible transmitters, radio connection information, executing applications or other operating environment characteristics that can have a value associated with them." - They can tell what apps are running on your phone. A "signature vector" might consist of: Microphone, Light sensor, WiFi connection, Cellular connection, BlueTooth Connection, GPS, Gyroscope, accelerometer, Thermometer, Music playing, Browser running; where each of these would have a numerical value to be matched against a table of locations.
US 20130203460 A1 Wireless communication system having assigned access classes and related methods (Harris) Feb 6, 2012 -
US 20130223417 A1Communication network for detecting uncooperative communications device and related methods (Harris) Feb 29, 2012 - To locate a cell phone when it's not in use.
US 20120280862 A1Patent Citations
Cited Patent Filing date Publication date Applicant Title US5719584 * Sep 3, 1996 Feb 17, 1998 Harris Corporation System and method for determining the geolocation of a transmitter US6407703 * Aug 7, 2000 Jun 18, 2002 Lockheed Martin Corporation Multi-platform geolocation method and system US7539166 * Oct 3, 2005 May 26, 2009 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Channel estimator, demodulator, speed estimator and method thereof US7944468 * Jul 5, 2005 May 17, 2011 Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation Automated asymmetric threat detection using backward tracking and behavioral analysis US8259652 * Nov 17, 2009 Sep 4, 2012 Apple Inc. Location-based network detection US20020181492 * May 29, 2002 Dec 5, 2002 Hideo Kasami Wireless communication apparatus US20040135717 * Sep 30, 2003 Jul 15, 2004 Lockheed Martin Corporation System and method for detecting emitters signals having multi-valued illumination times US20060019679 * Jul 22, 2005 Jan 26, 2006 Rappaport Theodore S System, method, and apparatus for determining and using the position of wireless devices or infrastructure for wireless network enhancements US20110148714 * Dec 23, 2010 Jun 23, 2011 Q-Track Corporation Near Field Electromagnetic Location System and Method US20120094610 * Jun 30, 2009 Apr 19, 2012 Nokia Corporation Apparatus, Method, Computer Program for Communication and System Thereof US20120195256 * Nov 29, 2011 Aug 2, 2012 Spidercloud Wireless, Inc. Method and apparatus for timing and/or frequency offset monitoring and handling Wireless location detection and/or tracking device and associated methods (Harris) May 3, 2011 -
This system consists of a "tag" that's a small active transponder that can be concealed on a person or item to be tracked. It works in such a way that it's transmission is very difficult to detect so even if an adversary is trying to sweep for bugs this unit will not be detected.US 7676205 B2
Active receiver detection and ranging (Harris), Sep 18, 2006 -
a cleaver way to determine the range to an uncooperative receiver and know if it's receiving a signal.
Eli Pariser at TED2011 Beware online "filter bubbles" - examples of Facebook and Google customizing what each person sees. Must read Ref 7.
Sam Harris: #152 - THE TROUBLE WITH FACEBOOK A Conversation with Roger McNamee - author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.
YouTube: Pdf 2010 | Eli Pariser: Filter Bubble, or How Personalization is Changing the Web
Alternative to Google = DuckDuckGo
Wiki: Covert listening device.
While ways of spying on cell phones are new, audio surveillance is very old.
Pen Registers, like the KS-3106, were used to record the outgoing number from a dial phone by inking a paper tape.
Movies (Wiki)
I recommend the three movies below:
The Conversation 1974 (IMDB, Wiki)
At the time there were articles in the SF Chronicle about Hal (Harold) Lipset and his private detective agency. also in San Francisco, that specialized in bugging.
Engendering Technology History Wiki: Harold Lipset - Credits Hal Lipset as the inspiration for Harry Cull in the movie. Note that Zoetrope is in San Francisco so this is the version I think is correct. But the Wiki page for "The Conversation" lists Martin Kaiser (TSCM: Martin L. Kaiser) in Maryland as the inspiration.
NPR: Timeline: Wiretaps' Use and Abuse 1791 to 2005 - 1968 Senate Wowed by 'Bug in the Martini Olive' Trick by Hal Lipset.
Blow Out 1981 (IMDB, Wiki) -
Enemy of the State 1998 (IMDB,Wiki) -
843186 Telephone dictating machine or apparatus, William F H Germer, 1907-02-05, - claimed "dictograph" but also could be used to bug a number of rooms.
Phones & Cell Phones
Telephone Patents
Telephone Poles & what's on them
Telephone Tool Kit
Telegraph
FasTrak Vehicle ID Transponder - is an active transponder, not an RF ID tag.
Key, Object & Pet Location Tags -
Spying on Cell (Mobil) Phones
Orion Electronics Ltd. Cellular Base Station ST616-CBS - fake cell tower
Cryptography & Cryotographic Machines & Cryptographic Patents
Gamewell - Pen Registers (Wiki) - these were used to capture outgoing phone call numbers in the time of dial phones.
CEI - TEMPSET (Cambridge: Markus Kuhn, Wiki: TEMPEST, Van Eck phreaking, RINT)
Ref 1: A Pretext for war: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America's intelligence agencies by James Bamford, 2004
Ref 2: The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America by James Bamford, 2008
Ref 3: Special Notice August 27, 2007
Ref 4: 1647 Telegraph Signs by Samuel Morse
Ref 5: New documents show how the NSA infers relationships based on mobile location data
Ref 6: Parody: Utah Data Center - Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert -
Ref 7: The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You -Pariser, Eli
Ref 8: Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe
Ref 9. Vintage Law Enforcement Surveillance Radio, 40:39 -
3:08 Recording - Presto Disk recorder 2221970 Sound recorder, Morris M Gruber, George J Saliba, Presto Recording, 1940-11-19, - for VOX see Magnetic Recording/Memovox -
6:21 Walkie-Recordall used because media not modifiable like magnetic tape.
2417651 Sound recording and reproducing machine, Kuhlik Jacob Miles, Hattie B Kuhlik, App: 1942-07-04, W.W.II, Pub: 1947-03-18, - a stylus engraves movie film moved from reel to reel without sprocket holes to record sound.6:49 - Body Recording - Gelosco Steno 2, Minifon P-55 (could go for hours), Nagra
2606766 Sound recording and reproducing machine, Kuhlik Jacob Miles, 1952-08-12, - a wide endless loop of film is used.= Walkie Recordall, Miles Reproducer
7:59 - Telephone Tapping -
11:03 - Pen Register
11:55 - Tel Mic - In 1945 FBI developed, 90 kHz carrier jumps telephone leaf switches. Allows listening to mike even when phone is on hook.
14:12 - 1960's Telephone Tapping at Instrument - Manny Middleton or Bernard "Bernie" Spindel the Infinity (harmonica) Transmitter (Wiki) also see the movie "The Conversation"
16:51 - Telephone Tapping with RF -
18:38 - Early FM RF Bodywires and Transmitters -
Major Players - none with patents
21:35 - Major Manufactgureres 1960s - 1970s
23:37 Major Players 1950s - 1970s
23:56 Bernard Spendel "Bernie"
24:15 Leo Jones - Fargo Co
24:55 Sholly Kagan - KEL
----- Avco-----26:18 Jack N. Holcomb - Audio Intellengence Devices (AID)
2931034 Variable inductance for loading antenna, Harrison John Eugene Roger, Kagan Sholly, Avco, 1960-03-29, - fishing pole, adjustable slug
2935606 Transistorized portable communication set, Harrison John Eugene Roger, Kagan Sholly, Avco, 1960-05-03, - tube type lunch box 2-way radio.
3005093 Transistorized detector and automatic gain control circuit, Harrison John Eugene Roger, Kagan Sholly, Avco, 1961-10-17, - 6V, Crystal controlled, single channel receiver
----- Polaroid -----
3185056 Electronic flash-photography, Gold Nathan, Kagan Sholly, Harry J Watters, Polaroid Corp, 1965-05-25, -remote flash triggered by RF signal (see: Pocket Wizzard)
FR1428113 Method and device for reducing a lack of correspondence of images on the screen of a television tube, Sholly Kagan, Polaroid Corp, 1966-02-11, -
3245332 Shutter timing apparatus, Kagan Sholly, Polaroid Corp, 1966-04-12, - photo cell causes mechanical shutter to vary exposure timing.
3651252 Image reproduction system which detects subject by sensing intensity ratios, Edwin Land, Leonard A Ferrari, Sholly Kagan, John J McCann, Polaroid Corp, 1972-03-21, - human perception based brightness. Why do this?
-----Bell and Howell -----
3623064 Paging receiver having cycling eccentric mass, Sholly Kagan, Bell and Howell, 1971-11-23, - see: Pager Motor Assortment
3618070 Vibratory alerting devices, Sholly Kagan, Bell & Howell, 1971-11-02, -
----- not assigned ----
3449684 Audio compression amplifier, Sholly Kagan, 1969-06-10, -
----- R.D. Percy and Co (Nielsen Ratings?) -----
4107734 Television viewer reaction determining system, Roger D. Percy, David C. M. Wilding, Sholly Kagan, R.D. Percy and Co, 1978-08-15, - reports the TV channel number and manually selected reaction
4308554 Television viewer reaction determining system, Roger D. Percy, David C. M. Wilding, Sholly Kagan, R.D. Percy and Co, 1981-12-29, - reports the TV channel number and manually selected reaction
28:15 Frank J. Jameson -
30:27 William D. (Bill) McGuin - Wecurity Intellengence Communications (S.I.C.)
32:35 Norval (Norm) Stapelfeld - - LoJack - car remote kill switch
33:46 1970s - 1980s Second Generation Gear
38:19 Tracking and Bumper Beepers - (See: Key, Object & Pet Location Tags)
Articles
2014 May 28 - United States v. BOGACHEV (2:14-cv-00685) Court Listener - FBI description of hacking 2-factor authentication (Wiki) - Note that Google has stopped using 2FA and now uses hardware keys.
2014 Sep 17 WaPo: Tech firm tries to pull back curtain on surveillance efforts in Washington -
EP2661113A1 Systems and methods for identifying rogue base stations, Verint Systems Ltd, 2013-04-30 - IMSI (Wiki) Catchers (Wiki) - mainly used when a cell phone places a call, not so much on calls that a cell phone receives. There should only be one TMSI (Wiki) active in a small geographical area, it two or more are detected it indicates a man-in-the-middle attack.
13 July 2007 IMSI Catcher.pdf -
2003 Man-in-the-Middle in Tunnelled Authentication Protocols -
First Look Media - The Intercept (Snowden Leaks) - to be named (corruption & politics)
By cracking cellphone code, NSA has capacity for decoding private conversations - How the NSA pinpoints a mobile device - NSA can process encrypted GSM when the cryptovariable is unknown (i.e. they can break GSM encryption, that's some of the above devices do).
FASCIA: The NSA's huge trove of location records -
parody: NSA Domestic Surveilance Directorate - NSA Worldwide Cellphone Tracking - 2013 Leaks - 2014 Leaks -
Description of data collection by NSA under MYSTIC -
Jan 2014
00:01:41 "Throughout this evolution we've benefited from both our constitution and our traditions of limited government. U.S. intelligence agencies were anchored in a system of checks and balances. With oversight from elected leaders and protections for ordinary citizens. Meanwhile totalitarian states, like East Germany, offer a cautionary tale of what could happen when vast unchecked surveillance turned citizens into informers and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their own homes. In fact even the United States proved to not be immune to the abuse of surveillance. In the 1960s the government spied on civil rights leaders and critics of the Vietnam war. And, partially in response to these revelations, additional laws were established in the 1970s to insure that our intelligence capabilities could not be misused against our citizens. In the long twilight struggle against Communism we had been reminded that the very liberties we sought to preserve could not be sacrificed at the alter of national security." . . .
00:04:22 "So that we demanded that our intelligence community improve it's capabilities, and that law enforcement change it's practices to focus more on preventing attacks before they happen than prosecuting terrorists after an attack."...
00:07:50 "Second, the combination of increased digital information and powerful super computers offers intelligence agencies the possibility of sifting through massive amounts of bulk data to identify patterns or pursue leads that may thwart impending threats. It's a powerful tool. But, the government collection and storage of such bulk data also creates a potential for abuse. Third, the legal safeguards that restrict surveillance against U.S. persons without a warrant do not apply to foreign persons overseas. This is not unique to America. Few, if any, spy agencies around the world constrain their activities beyond their own borders. And the whole point of intelligence is to obtain information that has not been publicly available. But America's capabilities are unique. And the power of new technologies means that there are fewer and fewer technical constraints on what we can't do. That places a special obligation on us to ask tough questions about what we should do. And finally intelligence agencies can not function without secrecy. Which makes their work less subject to public debate. Yet there is an inevitable bias not only within the intelligence community but among all of us who are responsible for national security to collect more information about the world, not less. So in the absence of institutional requirements for regular debate and oversight that is public as well as private, or classified, the danger of government overreach becomes more acute. And is particularly true when surveillance technology and a reliance on digital information is evolving much faster than our laws." ...
Fundamentally he's saying that the spying on U.S. citizens is being done responsibly.
My take is that the problem can be seen in J. Edgar Hoover or Richard Nixon who used the ability to spy on citizens illegally and neither of them were brought up on criminal charges. The same is true of the rampant violations of U.S. law committed by the Bush43 administration along with the telecom businesses and instead of prosecuting the felons they were all given amnesty.
Although Obama started out talking about the constitution and limited government he's ending up saying lets shred them.
Friday 17 January 2014 Obama's NSA 'reforms' are little more than a PR attempt to mollify the public
Obama is draping the banner of change over the NSA status quo. Bulk surveillance that caused such outrage will remain in place
25 Mar 2014 Obama’s New NSA Proposal and Democratic Partisan Hackery by Glen Greenwald - Now a 180.
COMSEC (Communications Security) — attacking cellular/mobile & GSM telephony
FBI Spy Planes Monitored a Single Suspect for Nearly 429 Hours - "The fleet of FBI planes, often small aircraft, are outfitted with high-tech video cameras and tracking devices known as “cell-site simulators” that trick mobile phones into connecting to the FBI’s device rather than to a legitimate cellphone tower."
Boston Police Bought Spy Tech With a Pot of Money Hidden From the Public, by Shannon Dooling and Christine Willmsen, WBUR, Dec 17, 2021 - $627,000 purchase of "stingray" device using hidden in civil asset forfeiture money.
TED -Christopher Soghoian: A brief history of phone wiretapping -- and how to avoid it - the Plain Old Telephone System was designed to allow wire tapping by government.
TED -Christopher Soghoian: Government surveillance — this is just the beginning
Popular Science - Mysterious Phony Cell Towers Could Be Intercepting Your Calls - reads like an ad for the company that makes secure phones. What's missing is a photo of the "Tower".
Wired magazine article on Snowden by Bamford -
YouTube:Listening Posts: An Intro to SIGINT - FR24, SDR, Panasonic Toughpad FZ-M1 (GPS, cameras), AirSpy SDR (USA R2: 24 - 1700 MHz, $170,; SpyVerter: 1kHz - 60 MHz, 120 MHz, $ 50; out), HackRF One: 1 to 6 GHz, $340; HackRF One Portapack H2+, $270; Is Skynet watching you already?, 1:03:59 - Rob Braxman - mobile phones and tracking/identity - YouTube -
YouTube:
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