IMSI catchers.

JimLucTKirkard · Nov 18, 2014

Apparently there is an app in development to detect them. I was also reading about cops being able to access the contents of your phone from their car in some areas. Is there any way to protect yourself from this blatant disregard of our constitutional rights? Would encryption help at all? If that detector app begins to work and I detect one, I might just hire a lawyer and see what my options are. I figure encryption would just work with the hard drive contents and in order to throw them off with tracking you would need to pair it with a VPN and a phone call and texting app like Pinger using a fake email address. The problem is that VPNs would have a horrible lag time. Handshake encryption seems to be the best for thwarting big brother's privacy rape, and to my understanding is one of the few that hasn't been cracked. I would think the encryption would need to be third party for best results, but I'm no expert. Apple apparently pissed off the FBI by claiming their encryption would keep law enforcement out. I trust Android more than I trust Apple for numerous reasons, one being the option to opt out of location data being stored.

What are your thoughts on this?

dynomot · Nov 18, 2014

Personally I have come to the conclusion that I really don't care. Google, Samsung already know where my phone is and by default me. If some agency wants to spy on me they'd die of boredom. If some other agency wants to defraud me by intercepting my data I'm not worth the effort.

As a general concern it is worrying that our "private" communications are no such thing. It should bother me more than it does, but frankly unless I live in a totalitarian state - which I still, maybe naively, feel I don't, then I'm not too concerned.

JimLucTKirkard · Nov 18, 2014

dynomot said:
Personally I have come to the conclusion that I really don't care. Google, Samsung already know where my phone is and by default me. If some agency wants to spy on me they'd die of boredom. If some other agency wants to defraud me by intercepting my data I'm not worth the effort.

As a general concern it is worrying that our "private" communications are no such thing. It should bother me more than it does, but frankly unless I live in a totalitarian state - which I still, maybe naively, feel I don't, then I'm not too concerned.

The way I see it is that these are steps toward a totalitarian state.

Hadron · Nov 18, 2014

Your network always knows roughly where you are from what cells your phone communicates with. No way of blocking that if you want to receive calls.

Talk of cops being able to read your phone's contents like that smells a bit tinfoil hat though. I'd take a proper sceptical look at the source and evidence before worrying about that. With phones being Internet terminals if the spooks are seriously interested in you it probably doesn't matter where you are (the only secure computer is one that's offline), but ordinary cops being able to read the contents of phones in their physical proximity sounds very implausible. Phones only use weak encryption when making calls, but I don't think a cop car even has the kit to break that.

JimLucTKirkard · Nov 18, 2014

Hadron said:
Your network always knows roughly where you are from what cells your phone communicates with. No way of blocking that if you want to receive calls.

Talk of cops being able to read your phone's contents like that smells a bit tinfoil hat though. I'd take a proper sceptical look at the source and evidence before worrying about that. With phones being Internet terminals if the spooks are seriously interested in you it probably doesn't matter where you are (the only secure computer is one that's offline), but ordinary cops being able to read the contents of phones in their physical proximity sounds very implausible. Phones only use weak encryption when making calls, but I don't think a cop car even has the kit to break that.

I can't remember what state it was in, but the ability to view the contents of your phone is real. They even talked about on the news locally about how cops could do something along those lines. Also, even turning off a computer doesn't help. NSA can view the hard drive contents through radio waves if they want.

Slug · Nov 18, 2014

JimLucTKirkard said:
NSA can view the hard drive contents through radio waves if they want.

I seriously doubt it, given that a hard drive doesn't emit radio waves to begin with.

JimLucTKirkard · Nov 18, 2014

Slug said:
I seriously doubt it, given that a hard drive doesn't emit radio waves to begin with.

http://www.cnet.com/news/nsa-reportedly-using-radio-waves-to-tap-offline-computers/

Hadron · Nov 18, 2014

JimLucTKirkard said:
NSA can view the hard drive contents through radio waves if they want.

Really? So through the metal casing of the computer and the hard drive enclosure they can resolve individual magnetic domains, with dimensions typically 200 nm (ultraviolet wavelength) using radio waves (can debate what wavelength radio starts at, but mm at the shortest).

Clearly the NSA can disregard the laws of physics as well as the laws of the land.

Edit: Ah, we cross-posted. But what that article says is:

Since 2008, the agency has been increasingly using a "covert channel of radio waves" that can transmit from hardware installed in the computers, according to NSA documents and experts interviewed by the Times.

So the claim is that they have a back-door inside the computer and a radio link transmitting the data. In other words, they've bugged some computers. Not quite what your post implied

JimLucTKirkard · Nov 18, 2014

Hadron said:
Really? So through the metal casing of the computer and the hard drive enclosure they can resolve individual magnetic domains, with dimensions typically 200 nm (ultraviolet wavelength) using radio waves (can debate what wavelength radio starts at, but mm at the shortest).

Clearly the NSA can disregard the laws of physics as well as the laws of the land.

Edit: Ah, we cross-posted. But what that article says is:

So the claim is that they have a back-door inside the computer and a radio link transmitting the data. In other words, they've bugged some computers. Not quite what your post implied

I guess I misread the article or gotten my wires crossed since it had been so long since I saw that.

mikedt · Nov 18, 2014

I'm sure the only way to stop your phone broadcasting its IMSI, is to turn it off of put it in aircraft mode.

dynomot · Nov 19, 2014

JimLucTKirkard said:
The way I see it is that these are steps toward a totalitarian state.

Nah, I can't go with that.

As long as I can call our Queen an "old bag", our government incompetent arseholes, our Prime Minister a "Bullington idiot" and generally, so long as I don't libel or slander anyone far worse. That, and carry out my life along with millions of other UK citizens who aren't plotting to blow up others, or cause harm in other ways I feel I don't live in a totalitarian state or one even approaching one by "stealth". Do I trust our government and security services along with all and any corporations that have any information on me? No, but so far they have AFAIK done me no harm. I still feel as free as I have ever done.

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