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There is a maintenance mode in every cell phone that allows it to be remotely turned on, that is, used as a listening device, without your knowledge. I don't k
by MichaelCrawford 12y ago
There is a maintenance mode in every cell phone that allows it to be remotely turned on, that is, used as a listening device, without your knowledge.
I don't know what authentication is required. I expect that it was designed so that only your cell carrier could enable it, however whatever may have been secret about it, quite likely has leaked out by now.
If you don't want to be listened-to, don't have _any_ cell phones anywhere near you. Not just your own - say you want a private conversation in a public place; the phones of other people in your general vicinity could be switched on to listen to you.
I learned this from a well-known left-wing radical organization known as the United States Air Force, when I applied for the USAF Cyber Command. Their site had a recruiting video, that depicted a couple officers locking their phones into a grounded metal box - a faraday cage - before entering a secure area, that is, a room where secrets were openly discussed.
- cryptoz 12y agoI've been asking everyone I know questions about this to make them realize how intense the total surveillance possibilities are. "How many internet-connected microphones are in the same room as you?" It's astonishing how big that number gets. For me right now, it's ~50. And so many of them are made by different companies, assembled in different countries, etc. The chance that someone, somewhere, can listen to you is nearly 100% if you're in a semi-public space. We're living in a dramatically more invasive surveillance society than 1984 ever predicted (that was just street cameras & one 'telescreen' in your home). And then, add into this mix that we have new market acceptance for devices that intentionally open this behaviour: XBox One, Moto X, Amazon's...whatevertheycallit. There's not only technical capability, but also increasing consumer desire. It's crazy. Further edits: There's a lot more at stake here, too, if you extrapolate from their[1] known capabilities and combine with actors who may also have motives at large scale. Take Facebook's mood-altering study, for example. We know that someone/Facebook has the ability to alter the moods and opinions of large groups of populations. The same actors can also listen/watch those people in real time. Dystopian scenarios of totalitarian governments exercising total population thought-control is more and more plausible as we all trade our privacy and security to giant corporations in exchange for mere convenience in our daily lives. [1]: Who is 'they'? I don't know, but there are many possible 'they's and it might be many of them.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoMost notebook computers have video cameras built into the display's frame, at the top. These cameras typically have a light that powers on when the camera is in use. However there is nothing at all to indicate that the computer has its audio microphone in use.
- click170 12y agoA quick google search shows that some cameras can be activated without that little LED coming online.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoI was once paid specifically to figure out a way to activate a camera without turning on the light. However in that case it was for a legitimate purpose.
- spacefight 12y agoOut of curiosity - what was that legitimation? Can you tell?
- fluidcruft 12y agoOne idea: I can easily imagine research studies getting IRB approval for this. The red light could alter the subject's behavior, and video analysis could be part of the metrics (for measuring attention/distraction or gross estimates of gaze, etc).
- everyTime 12y agoReally? Because I can't. I can't imagine an IRB-approved research study that requires a software solution (developed under an NDA) to a hardware problem that couldn't be solved with a one-inch square of black electrical tape. For the price of a contracted software developer, you could simply buy a model of laptop (or smart phone), in which the bezel can be pried open without substantial damage, and behind the LED's transparent aperture (but obscuring the LED), you fix a tidbit of black tape or whichever opaque material you may prefer. Or, better yet, for pretty much every situation that doesn't involve eye-movement tracking, simply install a hidden security camera at an opportunistic vantage point.
- maxerickson 12y agoThere are other reasons that cell phones would not be allowed in such a location. For instance, it makes it more difficult for an insider to remove sensitive information.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoWhile I expect you are correct, the USAF recruiting film specifically pointed out that cell phones aren't permitted in secure areas because of that maintenance mode.
- vegardx 12y agoYou're not allowed to bring any electronic devices into a secure area. Period. That means, watches, phones, laptops, pedometer and just about anything that has circuits.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoLots of good reasons for that. How do you know that a pedometer is really just a pedometer? That's how Bradley Manning made off with 800,00 diplomatic cables. He used a CD label printer to print CD-R blanks so that they looked like the albums from all his favorite bands, put the CD-R media into a portable player, then burned the CDs at his PC after downloading the cables over the Internet. Oddly, he was always searched on the way in, never on the way out.
- orbifold 12y agoIf they did use a user account system with capabilities (CD burning would be one of them) this couldn't have happened. That probably a million other possibilities.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoAlternatively, they could crack open an Internet RFC or two. Internet Protocol packets have a field for the security classification - unclassified, confidential, secret, top secret, there are other classifications that are themselves classified, as top secret ultra once was - as well as the compartment. I expect Bradley Manning had a top secret clearance, but I doubt he had the same compartment as was required to read diplomatic cables. Quite likely everyone was using commodity routers, such as one can purchase at Fry's. It must be expensive to purchase routers that enforce what has been in the Internet Protocol since the 1970s.
- biafra 12y agoDo you know in which part of the phones this is supposed to be in? In every cell phone? Without more details I call BS on this. It might be possible, but stating that every cell phone has it, sounds unlikely to me. I don't think it is part of the GSM specification, so what would be the reason that EVERY cell phone (Also non-GSM phones) has it?
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoI don't know. I don't think the Air Force would just make something like that up. It's not just a USAF policy, not to permit cell phones in secure areas. I know lots of people with clearances, none of them are permitted to bring cell phones into their offices. I applied to the Cyber Command in the Summer of 2008. What kinds of phones were in use at the time, in the United States? And the video did specifically say "every cell phone".
- eli 12y agoThat seems like a good policy even if most cell phones were immune to hacking.
- tormeh 12y agoEverything that has the capability to record must be assumed to be recording, I would argue.
- knd775 12y agoHow do you know that those policies aren't in place to prevent a person from knowingly recording sensitive data with their phone? Was there anything indicating that it was specifically for the reasons that you gave?
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoThis policy is so widespread, and it has been the policy for so long, that I would be quite surprised were such a reason not to have leaked out by now. People with clearances all know about this maintenance mode. None of them ever explain the error of my ways, when I discuss it with them.
- seekingtruth 12y agoStallman proven right again.
- superpoliteuser 12y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier_IQ
- mortov 12y agoMy understanding is that it was this facility (in part) which was used to track & monitor ex-US Marine Toby Studabaker when he went "missing" around 12 years ago with 12 year old Shevaun Pennington. He was 'found' in a hotel room in Germany - despite his phone being turned off.
- ars 12y ago> that depicted a couple officers locking their phones into a grounded metal box - a faraday cage I once tried that using a metal lunchbox, with a tight fitting metal lid - the phone rang anyway. Anyone else ever tried it? And as a side note, be sure and turn off (or airplane mode) your phone if you do put it in an effective faraday cage, or you will rapidly drain the battery as the phone constantly tries - at full power - to find a base station.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoOne has to also consider the skin effect. Electromagnetic waves penetrate a conductor to a depth comparable to their wavelength, with an intensity that decreases exponentially.
- shit_parade 12y agoplastic bag and tin foil worked for me.
- fulafel 12y ago> There is a maintenance mode in every cell phone that allows it to be remotely turned on, that is, used as a listening device, without your knowledge. Sounds tin-foily, any references? This conspiracy theory has been making the rounds for a long time and there's no evidence for it so far. Some problems immediately come to mind: - would eat phone battery quickly to keep radio listening for these things - would be vulnerable to discovery, eg leaks from phone industry engineers, reverse engineering by tinkerers, etc - yet has stayed secret for a long time (assuming this isn't a new thing) More realistic would be exploiting a bug in the phone baseband firmware to get remote code execution, and then reprogramming the phone to do what you want. And reason enough to treat phones like you observed.
- RaleyField 12y ago> would eat phone battery quickly to keep radio listening for these things your phone already listens for incoming call signal, this would be just another type of signal.
- fulafel 12y agoHe was talking about turning the phone on remotely.
- MichaelCrawford 12y agoPerhaps I should have been more clear: I wasn't claiming that this maintenance mode turns on the power to a phone, rather that if the phone is already powered on, the maintenance mode silently and invisibly turns on the phone's microphone, then transmits audio back to the cell tower. So if you leave your cell powered on, anyone who knows how to activate that maintenance mode can listen to what you are saying, without your knowledge.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago> More realistic would be exploiting a bug in the phone baseband firmware to get remote code execution, and then reprogramming the phone to do what you want. Or using baseband as intended to get remote code execution, and then on the cell company side wrap it up in a nice GUI or set of scripts, and voilà - you have the "maintenance mode" mentioned.
- spacecowboy_lon 12y agoThat also to stop the oficers from recording the meeting - a mate of mine worked for qinetiq and they have strict rules on phones being found with a phone with a camera inside his work place woudl have been a gross misconduct offence. I have been for DV clearnce job interviews (The FO at Milton keynes) and you can have NO electronics on your person past the reception area.
- kristoffer 12y agoThe presence of such a mode has never been proven in any commercially available cell phone. Your anecdotal USAF story does not prove anything either. The story in the link has nothing to do with surveillance at the cell phone level. Its about interception/rerouting in the global phone network.
- peterwwillis 12y agoOTA updates are a pretty simple way to load whatever you want on the phone, and that just requires digitally signed SMSes, but signed with DES.
- NietTim 12y agoSources would really be nice with this.