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US Spies on Mobile Phones From the Sky: Report

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Kara Dunlap in Security

SAN FRANCISCO – US justice officials are scooping up mobile phone data from unwitting Americans as part of a sophisticated airborne surveillance program designed to catch criminals, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Small aircraft deployed by the US Marshals Service from at least five major airports have been taking to the skies with “dirtbox” equipment designed to mimic signals from cell towers, according to the Journal.

That in turn tricks mobile phones into revealing unique identifying numbers and general locations, according to the report.

The name “dirtbox” was said to be derived from an acronym of Digital Recovery Technology Inc., the Boeing subsidiary that makes the device.

The range of aircraft in the program covers most of the US population, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the operation.

Details of flights were not given, but they were said to take place regularly with each outing potentially gathering data from tens of thousands of mobile phones.

The Journal reported that the US Justice Department declined to comment for the story other than to say that its agencies comply with the law when it comes to surveillance.

Mobile phones are programmed to connect with the closest signal tower, but trust signals from towers or imposters when it comes to making decisions, hackers have demonstrated.

Boxes in planes could automatically assure mobile phones they are the optimal signal tower, then accept identifying information from handsets seeking connections.

Fake cell towers could then pass connections onto real signal towers, remaining as a conduit with the ability to tune into or block digital transmissions.

Hackers refer to such tactics as “man-in-the-middle attacks.”

The Journal quoted American Civil Liberties Union chief technologist Christopher Soghoian as calling the program “dragnet surveillance” that is “inexcusable.”

The program is reportedly in place to reveal locations of mobile phones associated with criminals or those suspected of crimes, but collect data about other handsets that connect, according to the Journal.

After sifting through data collected, investigators could determine the location of a targeted mobile phone to within about three meters, the report indicated.

Similar devices are used by US military and intelligence officials operating in other countries to locate terrorist suspects, according to the Journal.

Trust in US authorities has already been shaken by revelations about a sweeping Internet surveillance program.

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NSA Spies on China Telecoms Giant Huawei: Report

Posted on March 23, 2014 by Kara Dunlap in Security

WASHINGTON – The US National Security Agency has secretly tapped into the networks of Chinese telecom and internet giant Huawei, the New York Times and Der Spiegel reported on their websites Saturday.

The NSA accessed Huawei’s email archive, communication between top company officials internal documents, and even the secret source code of individual Huawei products, read the reports, based on documents provided by fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

“We currently have good access and so much data that we don’t know what to do with it,” states one internal document cited by Der Spiegel.

Huawei — founded in 1987 by former People’s Liberation Army engineer Ren Zhengfei — has long been seen by Washington as a potential security Trojan Horse due to perceived close links to the Chinese government, which it denies.

The United States and Australia have barred Huawei from involvement in broadband projects over espionage fears.

Shenzhen-based Huawei is one of the world’s leading network equipment providers and is the world’s third-largest smartphone vendor.

The original goal of Operation “Shotgiant” was to find links between Huawei and the Chinese military, according to a 2010 document cited by The Times.

But it then expanded with the goal of learning how to penetrate Huawei computer and telephone networks sold to third countries.

“Many of our targets communicate over Huawei-produced products,” the NSA document read, according to The Times.

“We want to make sure that we know how to exploit these products,” it added, to “gain access to networks of interest” around the world.

Huawei is a major competitor to US-based Cisco Systems Inc. – but US officials insist that the spy agencies are not waging an industrial espionage campaign on behalf of US companies, as Snowden has alleged.

“The fact that we target foreign companies for intelligence is not part of any economic espionage,” a senior intelligence official told reporters Thursday.

The goal of economic intelligence efforts is “to support national security interests,” and “not to try to help Boeing,” the official said.