Whistleblower Exposes How the Government Spies on Your Cell Phone

December 25th, 2015

Awake Goy

The release of a secret U.S. government catalog of
cell phone surveillance devices has revealed the names and abilities of
dozens of surveillance tools previously unknown to the public. The
catalog shines a light on well-known devices like the Stingray and DRT
box, as well as new names like Cellbrite, Yellowstone, Blackfin,
Maximus, Stargrazer, and Cyberhawk. ~ Derrick Broze

The Intercept reports:

Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of
one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another
was developed for a special forces requirement.

Nearly a third of the
entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in
public before.

Anti Media has reported extensively on the Stingray, the brand name
of a popular cell-site simulator manufactured by the Harris Corporation.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation describes
Stingrays as “a brand name of an IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber
Identity) Catcher targeted and sold to law enforcement.

A Stingray works
by masquerading as a cell phone tower – to which your mobile phone
sends signals to every 7 to 15 seconds whether you are on a call or not –
and tricks your phone into connecting to it.”

As a result, whoever is in possession of the Stingray can figure out
who, when, and to where you are calling, the precise location of every
device within the range, and with some devices, even capture the content
of your conversations.

Both the Harris Corp. and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
require police to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDA) related to the
use of the devices.

Through these NDAs local police departments have
become subordinate to Harris, and even in court cases in front of a
judge, are not allowed to speak on the details of their arrangements.

Due to this secrecy, very little has been known about how exactly the Stingrays work.

The bit of
publicly available information was disclosed through open records
requests and lawsuits filed by journalists and researchers. This new
catalog provides even more detail about how the devices operate.

We already knew that Stingrays drain the battery
of a targeted device, as well as raise signal strength. We also knew
that as long as your phone is on, it could be targeted.

Some newer
details include the fact that the Stingray I and II will not work if the
user is “engaged in a call.” Also, the device can gather data from
phones within a 200 meter radius.

The next generation Hailstorm
device is even capable of cracking encryption on the newer 4G LTE
networks.

A number of the devices in the catalog are Digital Receiver
Technology (DRT) boxes, also known as dirt boxes, which can be installed
in planes for aerial surveillance. DRT was recently purchased by
Boeing.

We first learned of dirt boxes in late 2014, when the Wall
Street Journal revealed
a cell phone monitoring program operated by the U.S. Marshals Service,
using Cessna planes mounted with Stingrays.

AntiMedia has also reported
on surveillance planes equipped with thermal imaging technology.

Other devices include:

Cellbrite:
“a portable, handheld, field proven forensic system for the quick
extraction and analysis of 95% cell phones, smart phones and PDA
devices,” capable of extracting “information such as phone book,
pictures, video, text messages, and call logs.”
Kingfish: a Stingray-like device that is “portable enough to be carried around in a backpack.”
Stargrazer:
“an Army system developed to deny, degrade and/or disrupt a targeted
adversary’s command and control (C2) system,” which “can jam a handset
and capture its metadata at the same time it pinpoints your target’s
location. But watch out – the Stargazer may jam all the other phones in
the area too – including your own.”
Cyberhawk:
which is capable of gathering “phonebook, names, SMS, media files,
text, deleted SMS, calendar items and notes” from 79 cell phones.

Jennifer Lynch, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Intercept
that the use of these tools is part of the militarization of the police
in the U.S…

“We’ve seen a trend in the years since 9/11 to bring
sophisticated surveillance technologies that were originally designed
for military use – like Stingrays or drones or biometrics – back home to
the United States.”

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, NSA,
and U.S. military declined to leave a comment with the Intercept
regarding the catalog.

Marc Raimondi, a Justice Department spokesperson,
told the Intercept that the Department “uses technology in a
manner that is consistent with the requirements and protections of the
Constitution, including the Fourth Amendment, and applicable statutory
authorities.”

The Intercept notes that Raimondi worked for Harris Corp. for six years prior to working for the DOJ.

Secrecy surrounding the use of these devices has been a contentious topic of debate for several years. Truth In Media recently reported that four members of the House Oversight Committee sent letters
to 24 federal agencies including the Department of State and the
Securities and Exchange Commission, demanding answers regarding policies
for using the controversial surveillance technology.

House Oversight
Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, ranking member Elijah Cummings, and
Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), as members of the
committee’s IT subcommittee, issued requests for information related to
the potential use of stingrays.

Chaffetz also recently introduced the Stingray Privacy Act,
which would expand newly established warrant requirements for the
Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to all
federal, state, and local agencies that use the cell-site simulators.

In September, the DHS joined the DOJ
by announcing warrant requirements for the use of Stingray equipment,
but those rule changes have come under fire for possible loopholes which
may allow the continued use of surveillance equipment without a
warrant.

“Because cell-site simulators can collect so much information from
innocent people, a simple warrant for their use is not enough,” Jennifer
Lynch told the Intercept.

“Police officers should be required to limit
their use of the device to a short and defined period of time. Officers
also need to be clear in the probable cause affidavit supporting the
warrant about the device’s capabilities.”

At this point, it’s painfully obvious that America is the home of the
Police-Surveillance State. Awakened hearts and minds everywhere should
continue to educate themselves and their communities about the dangers
of these tools.

We should also support initiatives to create technology
that can defend against the prying eyes and ears of Big Brother. Privacy
is a dying notion in a nation of fools determined to be safe rather
than liberated.

If you give a damn, now is the time to stand up and be
heard.

Source

December 23, 2015 – KnowTheLies