ABC News is reporting a story that claims the FBI can access and control a cellphone that is turned off, activate its microphone and transmit any audio it picks up to a FBI listening post.
While these claims sound a little bit farfetched so did Project Echelon when I first read about it.
I know you can often issue serial AT commands to mobile devices and the list of functions you can execute remotely is usually startlingly long. But, I’m not familiar with a way to wake a mobile device from being powered off and operate it in a clandestine state.
I hope we can have discussions at eTel about the growing threats to privacy in the telecom space and what people think we can/should be doing.
I know businessmen in Russia who have been taking the batteries out of their cellphones whenenver they aren't using it -- for 15 years now. For this very reason.
Sorry IMO this is a crock of crap. Without even bothering to Google and check out specs as I think it is a waste of time to begin with, I'd say that the article is nonsense. The mobiles that were used must have been tampered with. I don't believe for one second that this functionality ships with regular mobiles! LOL.
Their the FBI they decide what we can sell and what we can't. You sound so ignorant you obviously have no knowledge of what they are capable of doing. I hacked my phone before but only to change menu's and data sizes on my phone. Again their the FBI and all they have to do is flash the phone and put a hack into mobile software. Its not that hard to do if you have thousands of willingly intelligent tech geeks that would do it for the $.
oh my god! When will these creeps drop dead already. Get a life. Leave us alone. The handwriting is on the wall. I am about ready to move out of this doomed country.
Lee, I agree this sounds outrageous. The easiest explanation to swallow is that the H/W in question was modified. That every mobile device is prone to sniffing to this degree seems super unlikely, I'd assume something would have bubbled up by now if this really was in production.
RCI Wireless has a great article on this, here are a few points in the article. "A cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the pourpose of listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone. This is done by transmitting to the cell phone a maintenance command on the control channel. This command places the cellular telephone in the "diagnostic mode." This is refered to as a roving bug. "Roving bugs" pick up room audio as opposed to traditional wiretaps.... ....a "roving bug" can be implanted over the air in most any digital cell phone.... Add this, ....more than 200 million U.S. cellular subscribers whose location can already be pinpointed... "In various respects, the cell phone is a tracking device and its a bug..."
So, it looks like the s/w changes necessary to enable this "new feature" are installed over the air without the consumer knowing their carrier just pushed them an "update". Slightly more details here.
I first heard this the other day at a party and thought it was bunk. Then I searched. Having been in signal intelligence in the late 60's, I should not have been so doubtful. Here are a number of links that talk about it.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035-6140191.html
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/remotely_eavesd_1.html
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/003798.html
http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13234&highlight=roving+bug
I have the roving bug in my personal phone - a gift from industrious workmates. I wish someone would take abuse of this technology seriously so that people like me can have some relief from the abuse and fear and harrassment.
i continue to surf the web for good info on the roving bug