Are They Tracking You? - Government Cell Phone Surveillance

From an article in "For the Defense" Winter 2012 • Volume XVI, Issue 4, New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, by Bill Elliott, Criminal Defense Investigative Specialist — Contact the author for a pdf copy of the full article.

With the recent ruling in USA v. Jones mandating that law enforcement will now need probable cause and a warrant prior to attaching a GPS (Global Positioning System) tracking device to someone’s vehicle, most people are feeling pretty secure that the government will not be tracking their every movement without good reason and authorization from a judge. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

In fact, this narrow decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-1259.pdf) only addressed the issue of physically attaching a GPS tracker to someone’s vehicle and not the more common place practice of tracking someone using their cell phone...

What is a cell phone ‘ping’ and why all the government interest in cell site location data?
 
Simply stated, a cell ping is when a cell tower communicates with a cell phone in its area of coverage to see if there is a need to connect. Cell phones are continuously communicating with cell site towers every couple of seconds saying here I am, are you receiving my signal.
 
This is happening even if no call is being placed at the time. At times a cell phone may be communicating with as many as six cell towers at once as it nears a handoff point. Each cell tower is recording this contact and this information can be utilized to track the location and movements of the cell phone across town or across the country. A cell phone’s location can be identified to within a quarter-mile radius of the cell tower location. The location can be narrowed even further by utilizing information as to which side of the tower the cell phone was on and, using other cell phone towers to triangulate the cell phone’s signal, the actual location can be pinpointed with signal strength meters.

In a nutshell... If you voluntarily carry a GPS receiver with you (a feature of your cell phone), it is not a surveillance enhancement. Thus, it can be used against you.

Turkish PM: Five Electronic Surveillance Devices Found

Turkey - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan revealed that four unauthorized wiretapping devices had been detected in his parliamentary office and government car.

A subsequent report from the Office of the Prime Minister on December 25 said that one more device had been found in Mr. Erdoğan’s home-office at this residence in Turkish capital Ankara. (more)

See Two App Store Icons on Your Phone? Beware.

New spyware Trojan – Android.DDoS.1.origin – silently takes over your phone.
 
via Dr. Web...
Android.DDoS.1.origin creates an application icon, similar to that of Google Play. If the user decides to use the fake icon to access Google Play, (Google Play) will be launched, which significantly reduces the risk of any suspicion.

When launched, the Trojan tries to connect to a remote server and, if successful, it transmits the phone number of the compromised device to criminals and then waits for further SMS commands...

Activities of the Trojan can lower performance of the infected handset and affect the well-being of its owner, as access to the Internet and SMS are chargeable services. Should the device send messages to premium numbers, malicious activities will cost the user even more.

It is not quite clear yet how the Trojan spreads but most probably criminals employ social engineering tricks and disguise the malware as a legitimate application from Google. (more)

Putting Spyware on Daughter's Phone Nets Restraining Order

OH - A university student who accused her mother and father of stalking her after they installed monitoring software on her phone and computer has won a restraining order against them.

A US judge ordered David and Julie Ireland to stay at least 150m away from their daughter Aubrey Ireland and have no contact with her at a court hearing in Ohio on December 10. (more)

Remember the spy who was found dead in a duffle bag?...

UK - Scotland Yard has concluded that MI6 Codebreaker Gareth Williams probably locked himself inside the duffel bag he was found dead in, sources close to the inquiry tell the Telegraph. 

Click to enlarge

Police re-opened the case after the coroner ruled that a third party had likely been involved—possibly even one of Williams' security service colleagues—but after taking DNA samples and re-interviewing MI6 employees, the detectives "have been unable to find any trace of anyone who should not have been in the flat," the source says. (more)

Wiretapping Sweeps Over China

Now wiretapping is very popular in China's officialdom, from senior level to the grass-roots, spying equipment is being utilized widely.

Officials wiretap each other to find their opponent's secrets, then use it as a bargaining chip to achieve a promotion. In many situations, people can see that the officials embrace each other. In fact, it's an action to check whether the other has a wiretapping device or not.

Commentators thought the spy equipment has been a tool of siding with the bully in China, where it isn't ruled by law.

Qi Hong is an expert on detecting spying equipment in China. Recently he told media that he had helped more than one hundred officials remove more than 300 bugs in 2011. His job is locating the wiretap device and pinhole camera from officials' car, bedroom and office. In busiest times, he removed more than 40 devices in a week.

Qi Hong also exposed that wiretap devices are widely used among the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members. In some cases, the subordinates want to find some crimes of their superior, so that he can replace them. In some cases, competitors want to find the secrets of others which can be used to plot against them. In some cases, the superiors want to control the subordinates.

In addition, the wives and lovers want to grasp some insider information. Normally, the wiretap devices were installed in officials' cars, offices and bedrooms. (more) (video)

Repeat after me, class, "Emails are postcards."

The Senate has sent legislation to President Obama that strips out an amendment that would have forced law enforcement to obtain warrants before reading the emails of U.S. citizens stored in the cloud. 

The new measure is a tweak to the Video Privacy Protection Act, which outlaws the disclosure of video-rental information unless given consent by customers. The act was adopted in 1988 after failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's rental history was leaked to the Washington City Paper. (more)

Christmas, and another phone company Pontius Pilate's spyware

Vietnam - Mobile phone subscribers have become worried stiff when hearing that their phone conversations would be tapped at any time, as the software pieces and devices allowing to bug phone calls have been selling everywhere.

There are a lot of bug device suppliers. Especially, the ad pieces on supplying tapping software pieces and devices can be found on websites as well. The advertisers affirm that all the latest generation software pieces like Spyphone, Copyphone, PokerSpyphone, Spy Mobile, Mobile Phone Spy would be delivered right after buyers make payment.

Clients have been told that it’ll take them some minutes only to install the software or bug devices into the targeted phones to record all the conversations and messages. Especially, the devices are dirt cheap, just about one million dong, which makes nothing to the people who can afford the smart phones running on iOS or Android.

In reply, network operators have affirmed that they have no involvement in the wiretapping operation and that in principle, all the personal information of subscribers has been kept confidential. (more)

But, we don't hear them complaining about the extra revenue they earn from spyware data transfers. ~Kevin

KGB: We Bugged Royals (We're shocked.)

Soviet secret agents bugged Princess Margaret’s telephone and ­listened in on the conversations of other senior royals. 

Listening devices were planted in the Princess’s bedroom during an official trip to Copenhagen in 1964. Until last week the Russians had always denied the ­covert operation... Colonel Vadim Goncharov, the KGB chief in charge of snooping operations on key western targets, installed listening devices in Princess Margaret’s lighter, cigarette case, ashtrays and telephones, eavesdropping on conversations that were “most interesting, even scandalous”... A book by the newspaper’s intelligence analyst, Gennady Sokolov, to be published next year, will provide new details about the operation against the Queen’s sister... Entitled The Kremlin v The Windsors – Palace Spies Of The Secret War, it will also reveal other attempts by Russian intelligence to spy on the Royal Family. (more)

Three Years of Privacy Stories - Wall Street Journal

Watched: A Wall Street Journal Privacy Report
As surveillance technologies decline in cost and grow in sophistication, tracking of many aspects of our daily activities, even the seemingly mundane, has become the default rather than the exception. The Wall Street Journal's Watched project—the latest in a years-long series on privacy—explores the impact of ubiquitous surveillance on citizens and society. (more)
The End of Privacy
The age of computing has created a new economy, in which data on people's habits, activities and interests is collected, sold and traded, often without their knowledge. The Wall Street Journal's What They Know series documents new, cutting edge uses of tracking technology and what the rise of ubiquitous surveillance means for consumers and society. (more)

The What They Know Series (more)

Android Virus Uses Your Phone to Spread Spam

Android smartphone users alert...
Spammed text messages have begun circulating that can infect your handset, causing it to continually send virulent text messages to thousands of live phone numbers each day.

That discovery comes as hackers continue to probe the Android platform, in particular, for security holes with no slowdown expected in 2013...

Messaging security firm Cloudmark Research recently discovered a virulent spam campaign that is sending text messages to Android users offering free versions of Need for Speed Most Wanted, Angry Birds Star Wars, Grand Theft Auto and other popular games.

By installing the free app, the user actually downloads a hidden program connecting their handset to a command and control server in Hong Kong, says Cloudmark researcher Andrew Conway. The Hong Kong server next sends the handset a list of 50 phone numbers, copies of viral messages and instructions to begin sending the messages to each of the numbers. (more)

Result...
If victims don't have an unlimited texting plan, the next phone bill could be a whopper because each infected phone can blast thousands of viral text messages a day.

SpyCam Story #664 - This Month In SpyCam News

SpyCam stories have become commonplace and the techniques used, repetitive. We continue to keep lose track of the subject for statistical purposes, but won't bore you with too many details. Links supplied. 

"What's up Doc?"

VA - Foot doctor hides restroom spycam in box of latex gloves. Employee fingers it.
LA - Gynecologist documents work too well. 186 counts of video voyeurism.
NY - Urologist arrested for upskirting. 
CA - Plastic surgeon for celebrities with spycam in dressing room.

The Usual Suspects...
ID - Nature lover films women using campground shower. Admits to dozens of films.
ID - Cell phone + tissue box + employee restroom...
ID - Man has pleads guilty to video voyeurism.
CT - Cell phone + tissue box + bathroom... 
CT - Subway sandwich employee stuffs spycam into insulation under the bathroom sink.

KY - Man charged with placing spy cam in Wal-Mart men's room. Hold the KY jokes. 

CO - Man hiding in Yoga festival porta-potty tank pleads not guilty. Try insanity next time.

AR - Hidden camera in girl's bedroom. A dolt claims, "to see if she was having sex."
AR - Tanning bed spycam'er pleads guilty. 
FL - Man gets 10 years for spycam in bedrooms and evidence tampering.
LA - Ex-security guard - 42 counts of voyeurism. Hid spycams in restrooms at his building.
MI - Man jailed for taping sexual encounter between himself and three women.

UK - Landlord with clothes hook spycam hung by his own petard.
UK - Married vicar suspended after arrest on suspicion of voyeurism.

Canada - Swimming instructor puts spycam in staff-only locker room. 
Canada - Clothing store dressing room cam-man turns himself in. 
Canada - Another clothing store cam-man.
Austria - Artist installs one-way mirror in cafe. Peeks from mens restroom into ladies room. 

School Daze...
KY - A real McCoy caught upskirting at college.
NJ - Chief custodian at Catholic high school + 8 cameras - Arrested.
CT - Cell phone + college co-ed showers... What could possibly go wrong? 
IN - Janitor + spycam + locker room.
IN - Middle School science teacher + spycam + women's faculty restroom at the school. 
OH - Middle School teacher + spycam + 2 female teachers in teachers-only bathroom.
OH - High school coach + camera in Boy's Locker Room, pleads not guilty. 
CT - School psychologist + camera + house guest.

Darwin Awards...
AR - Wife finds video of underage girl on his/her computer. He filmed himself setting it up.
Canada - Likes to watch women sleep. Voyeurism no, B&E yes. Cell phone left behind.

UK - Male nurse arrested for spycaming at Stonyhurst College found hanged at home.

Florida Man Convicted in Wiretapping Scheme Targeting Celebrities

A Florida man who hacked into the personal e-mail accounts of more than 50 people associated with the entertainment industry—including actors Scarlett Johansson, Mila Kunis, and Renee Olstead—was sentenced this afternoon to 120 months in federal prison.

Christopher Chaney, 36, of Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero, who also ordered the defendant to pay $66,179 in restitution. At today’s hearing, Judge Otero said Chaney’s conduct demonstrated a “callous disregard to the victims”—particularly, two non-celebrity victims, each of whom was stalked by Chaney for more than 10 years. Judge Otero noted that with the increase in cybercrime, it is important to realize that extreme emotional distress can be as devastating as a physical injury.

Chaney has been in custody since March, when he pleaded guilty to nine felony counts, including wiretapping and unauthorized access to protected computers. (more)

Android Malware Among Top Threats for 2013

Security company Trend Micro has prophesied that the number of malicious and insecure Android apps will triple from 350,000 by the end of this year to more than a million.

Also among the company's predictions in its "Security Threats to Business, the Digital Lifestyle, and the Cloud" report: Cyber criminals will heavily abuse legitimate cloud services; hacktivist attacks will become more destructive; and the increase in computing platforms and devices will lead to threats cropping up in unexpected places. (more)

FutureWatch: New TSCM Tool on the Far Horizon

A secret agent is racing against time. He knows a bomb is nearby. He rounds a corner, spots a pile of suspicious boxes in the alleyway, and pulls out his cell phone. As he scans it over the packages, their contents appear onscreen. In the nick of time, his handy smartphone application reveals an explosive device, and the agent saves the day.

Already in use, but not yet cheap and portable.

Sound far-fetched? In fact it is a real possibility, thanks to tiny inexpensive silicon microchips developed by a pair of electrical engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). 

The chips generate and radiate high-frequency electromagnetic waves, called terahertz (THz) waves, that fall into a largely untapped region of the electromagnetic spectrum—between microwaves and far-infrared radiation—and that can penetrate a host of materials without the ionizing damage of X-rays.

When incorporated into handheld devices, the new microchips could enable a broad range of applications in fields ranging from homeland security (and TSCM) to wireless communications (new types of bugs) to health care, and even touchless gaming. In the future, the technology may lead to noninvasive cancer diagnosis, among other applications. (more)