Tracking Via Anonymous SIM Cards 426
Noryungi writes "The New York Times reports that Al Qaeda operatives were tracked using the ID of the GSM phone chips sold by a Swiss company named Swisscom. Very interesting."
You can measure a programmer's perspective by noting his attitude on the continuing viability of FORTRAN. -- Alan Perlis
Al Queda's Dumbest Criminals (Score:5, Informative)
No need for tin foil hats here! (Score:5, Informative)
Swisscom website (Score:0, Informative)
Article Text for the lazy, no eyebleed (Score:2, Informative)
How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web
By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and DESMOND BUTLER
ONDON, March 2 -- The terrorism investigation code-named Mont Blanc began almost by accident in April 2002, when authorities intercepted a cellphone call that lasted less than a minute and involved not a single word of conversation.
Investigators, suspicious that the call was a signal between terrorists, followed the trail first to one terror suspect, then to others, and eventually to terror cells on three continents.
What tied them together was a computer chip smaller than a fingernail. But before the investigation wound down in recent weeks, its global net caught dozens of suspected Qaeda members and disrupted at least three planned attacks in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, according to counterterrorism and intelligence officials in Europe and the United States.
The investigation helped narrow the search for one of the most wanted men in the world, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to three intelligence officials based in Europe. American authorities arrested Mr. Mohammed in Pakistan last March.
For two years, investigators now say, they were able to track the conversations and movements of several Qaeda leaders and dozens of operatives after determining that the suspects favored a particular brand of cellphone chip. The chips carry prepaid minutes and allow phone use around the world.
Investigators said they believed that the chips, made by Swisscom of Switzerland, were popular with terrorists because they could buy the chips without giving their names.
"They thought these phones protected their anonymity, but they didn't," said a senior intelligence official based in Europe. Even without personal information, the authorities were able to conduct routine monitoring of phone conversations.
A half dozen senior officials in the United States and Europe agreed to talk in detail about the previously undisclosed investigation because, they said, it was completed. They also said they had strong indications that terror suspects, alert to the phones' vulnerability, had largely abandoned them for important communications and instead were using e-mail, Internet phone calls and hand-delivered messages.
"This was one of the most effective tools we had to locate Al Qaeda," said a senior counterterrorism official in Europe. "The perception of anonymity may have lulled them into a false sense of security. We now believe that Al Qaeda has figured out that we were monitoring them through these phones."
The officials called the operation one of the most successful investigations since Sept. 11, 2001, and an example of unusual cooperation between agencies in different countries. Led by the Swiss, the investigation involved agents from more than a dozen countries, including the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Britain and Italy.
Cellphones have played a major role in the constant jousting between terrorists and intelligence agencies. In their requests for more investigative powers, Attorney General John Ashcroft and other officials have repeatedly cited the importance of monitoring portable phones. Each success by investigators seems to drive terrorists either to more advanced -- or to more primitive -- communications.
During the American bombing of Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December 2001, American authorities reported hearing Osama bin Laden speaking to his associates on a satellite phone. Since then, Mr. bin Laden has communicated with handwritten messages delivered by trusted couriers, officials said.
In 2002 the German authorities broke up a cell after monitoring calls by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been linked by some top American officials to Al Qaeda, in which he could be heard ordering attacks on Jewish targets in Germany. Since then, investigators say, Mr. Zarqawi has been more cautious.
"If you beat terrorists over the h
Re:There go your rights.. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:5, Informative)
Someone please mod this guys as insightful. Law enforcement and various governments have the ability to track cell phone calls and draw conclusions based upon the interactions of various callers and call'ees. If you're doing something nefarious, you run this the risk of being monitored and apprehended.
In other news, when I woke up this morning, the run had risen, I had to go to work, and traffic sucked.
Swisscom (Score:3, Informative)
Re:There go your rights.. (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, if you RTFA properly then you would realise that they were NOT routinely monitoring calls.
What they WERE doing was monitoring calls to / from numbers which were on a list of numbers they found when they arrested another terrorist.
PLEASE try to keep your conspiracy paranoia uner control.
Re:HA! (Score:5, Informative)
Anyone can do this in the UK (Score:5, Informative)
This 'top secret tracking" is available to consumers and companies in the UK see:.
http://followus.co.uk [followus.co.uk]
http://www.fleetonline.net [fleetonline.net]
Of course you need the phone owners permission.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:5, Informative)
Big Brother(x) = 1984 + 20 = 2004.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:5, Informative)
That statment is vastly exaggerated. In fact triangulating the position based on signal strength gives vastly inaccurate results. Simply passing behind a wall would make you appear 20-100m further from the cell station, making triangulation hopeless at accuracy.
The most accurate method availible is called time advance. Basically the towers keep a very accurate record of your latency, and transmit their signal slightly in advance when you are far away to make sure it reaches you at the time your cellphone expects it. IIRC this value is measured in 1/10ths of a bit, and yeilds an accuracy of 500m. No methods of tracking cellphones are as good as the = 10m GPS provides.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:1, Informative)
For Immediate Release March 12, 1997
EXECUTIVE ORDER
EXCLUSION OF THE NAVAL SPECIAL WARFARE DEVELOPMENT GROUP
FROM THE FEDERAL LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS PROGRAM
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 7103(b)(1) of title 5 of the United States Code, and having determined that the Naval Special Warfare Development Group has as a primary function intelligence, counter-intelligence, investigative, or national security work and that the provisions of Chapter 71 of title 5 of the United States Code cannot be applied to this organization in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations, Executive Order 12171 of November 19, 1979, as amended, is further amended by adding the following at the end of section 1-205:
"(i) Naval Special Warfare Development Group."
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
THE WHITE HOUSE,
March 11, 1997.
Yep, there's the cover up. I think you should put the "blinders" back on.
French periodical Paris Match published the radar transcripts showing that there was something else in the air next to TWA 800 when it exploded.
And everyone knows how French periodicals are always allowed full access to FAA radar data.
News.com (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Oh great... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:4, Informative)
The NTSB Flight 800 Page [ntsb.gov] seems to have the evidence contrary to your own beliefs, and if you are really nice, and try not to sound like you are a conspiracy theorist, they may let you see the evidence for yourself, under a press pass - or "I'm a collage student writing a paper on", etc. Of course, there have been plenty of (non-government employed) people whom have already seen it, and it's probably been warehoused, but no harm in trying. What I'm saying here, is if you show me proof, I'm on your side, until then - I'm letting you know what I'm basing my beliefs on.
Kindest regards.
Re:There go your rights.. (Score:3, Informative)
The US and just about any intelligence agency with enough funding have been monitoring wireless communications. I do not believe any law exists that protects the intercept of openly transmitted signals, if you broadcast it folks can listen. Regardless it is permitted by law, for say the CIA, to monitor non-citizen communications especially outside of the country (obviously in a covert way).
Additionally you think the government has folks listening to EVERY communication, talking notes, talking about them at the water cooler with friends, etc.? No, no government has the resources to do that.
What they do have is targeted monitoring, software/hardware looking for patterns of communication, particular voices, particular phrases, etc. that get something flagged for further analysis.
Think of it this way... if you are at the Airport and you overhear the guy next to you say the words "PLANE", "HIJACK", and "BOMB" while he is talking with another person...
What would you do? What would you want others to do?
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:4, Informative)
The executive order referenced exempts a specific group in the Navy from federal labor law, adding them to a huge list of intelligence agencies that was instituted by Exexcutive Order in 1979 by President Ford, as provided for in Section 7103(b) of Title 5 of the United States Code. What the hell does that have to do with a coverup? Are you asserting that Clinton exempted that Group and then threatened to fire them all from the Navy if they tried to form a labor union, which somehow got them to be quiet about shooting down a plane?
No one's asking you to remove your tin foil hat, but please, if you're going to provide "evidence" of a coverup, at least make some sense. If the executive order had suspended some part of the uniform laws that prohibits shooting down civilian planes, you might have something.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:3, Informative)
You stupid. The radar report was leaked, this is why every periodical, even French, could have got it if quick enough.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:2, Informative)
That the President of the United States felt compelled to deny this very specific group of individuals protection under these statutes, the very day after evidence is produced implicating the Navy in this tragedy can be seen as nothing less than an attempt to cover-up the truth.
Unless, of course, you've got your blinders on.
As for the NTSB, that report is mostly crap. It doesn't talk about how NTSB agents appeared in front of a Senate subcommittee and testified against the FBI, accusing them of confiscating and deliberately destroying evidence, both felony activities.
I actually got to see those hearing live on C-SPAN. (But now that I think about it, it could have been unmarked black helicopters transmitting secret mind control signals that only my tin-foil hat was capable of receiving.)
If you want to learn the facts about TWA 800. [whatreallyhappened.com]
The lawsuit against NTSB over TWA 800. [freerepublic.com]
Re:Some precisions (Score:5, Informative)
This db is used to keep track of stolen and faulty cellphones (well, terminals, really), refusing service to those classes of equipment. However, nothing stops the operator from using this information instead of the IMSI on the SIM card for tracking purposes.
Also, in modern GSM O&M software, it's a builtin feature: you tell the system that you wish tp keep track of all movements and calls of this IMSI number, or EIN. It's then logged to file.
It gets even better: you can of course record when the EIN is changed; moving the SIM card then just means another EIN will be tracked (as well as the old one...), and of course the SIM-card that is next put into the phone you just monitored might get monitored too...
It's all just a few clicks in the GUI away. Disk space is cheap. Welcome, Brave New World.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:2, Informative)
ignorant (Score:4, Informative)
It is indeed ridiculous to even think the Navy could ever shoot down a civilian airliner. [wikipedia.org]
In holland you can buy a SIM for 5 euro (Score:4, Informative)
The mobile carriers also have the abillity to track you with the unique IMEI number of your GSM. With Software it is possible to change the IMEI of your GSM. A new SIM and an IMEI change means you are anonymous again.
Dutch police routinely asks the Mobile Carriers for subscriber data from customers who where in the same area where a crime has been committed.
Re:Swisscom (Score:3, Informative)
Greetings from Switzerland,
Raymond
not treason (Score:4, Informative)
Treason is tightly defined by the constitution. It can't exist except in time of DECLARED war (which we DON'T have at the moment.)
This is why Jane Fonda got to marry a billionaire rather than twist slowly at the end of a noose.