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."
The ideal voice for radio may be defined as showing no substance, no sex, no owner, and a message of importance for every housewife. -- Harry V. Wade
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:3, Interesting)
And that's why the big brother guys, like the CIA, NSA and FBI really pushed for that type of infrastructure to be developed, right? But... oh wait, it was actually some of the northern states who thought it might be nice to be able to help find people lost in snow storms.
Oh... just noticed this, you're a kook. TWA 800 shot down? Sure sure... ding! time to take your medicine
Weirdness.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Nothing was stopping me from putting down the wrong info (looking back now, maybe I should have). It just struck me as odd how easy it would have been to fake it all..
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:0, Interesting)
Clinton signed that Executive Order the day after the French periodical Paris Match published the radar transcripts showing that there was something else in the air next to TWA 800 when it exploded.
Nobody's expecting you to remove your blinders. But maybe if you could just take a peek every now and again at the world outside, you know, a sort of reality check.
Social Mapping of "Anonymous" people (Score:5, Interesting)
The authorities can probably even deduce leadership structures from the sequence of calls. If A calls B and then B immediately calls C, D, and E, we might suspect that B is a leader of a cell with D, E, and F as members. Add data on physical location (phone towers) and the authorities have even more data to map out a network and assess likely roles of unnamed people.
Qaeda's painful addiction to 'da SIMs... (Score:5, Interesting)
Some of my favorite quotes:
From both the mental image and funny-long-names-of-stuff-in-Germany file:
- "If you beat terrorists over the head enough, they learn," said Col. Nick Pratt, a counterterrorism expert and professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
And the enjoying-that-feeling-of-absolute-superiority-oveAnother official agreed: "They'd switch phones but use the same cards. The people were stupid enough to use the same cards all of the time. It was a very good thing for us."
And I'm sure this one has already been posted, but...
From both the kill-joy and tinfoil-hat/nuking-new-$20s files:
- "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."
Sigh...Some precisions (Score:5, Interesting)
For about $50 you get a SIM card that you can put in you GSM mobile. You now have a phone number and some initial credit. You can buy credit (a card with a hidden number to dial) from any news stand anytime. Never in the process does your name appear anywhere. You can even buy the cards in supermarkets.
The question of such anonymity was raised several times, but ultimately the decision was that it wasn't possible to require personal information for such items. Since there's no contract and no bills in the system, there's no reason to ask for your name, address, etc. And there's millions of them in use already.
Note that all operators offer such cards. It's a bit more expensive than regular price plans but damn useful if you're a traveler, want to control expenses or can't get a regular plan because of bad credit. To my knowledge, many other european countries offer such prepaid cards now... We just happened to be the first.
Echelon monitoring? (Score:5, Interesting)
Given the first +5 Informative FUD troll on this thread it's clear we're in full conspiracy theory mode, so let's trot out Echelon again.
It's theorized that there exists a gigantic electronic SIGINT monitoring network, known as Echelon, which is operated across the Sort Of Free World by the United States, the United Kingdom, and other allies. The system is supposed to be powerful enough to monitor every phonecall, every email, every satellite communication, and handle *all of it simultaneously*. Pattern matching and keyword analysis are done by computers in realtime. Echelon can also make toast, predict stock market trends, and runs it's own psychic hotline.
On a more serious note, how routine that kind of thing might be requires a more careful analysis of the laws of the United Kingdom, which are not the same as the laws of the United States. I don't know what the rules are over there governing the implicit privacy of information.
Unlocked SIM cards and you... (Score:4, Interesting)
The modded firmware of some phones can Jam and hop Ids randomly to leech airtime. This is a real problem in some countries with mature cell nets.
Node logs are not perfect.
As every drug dealer busted can tell you that buying your phones in bulk and dropping them (Or purposely losing them in a public place) every 24h removes the chance of getting a tap put on in time.
To live in Fear and Ignorance, only teaches one paranoia.
Re:No need for tin foil hats here! (Score:3, Interesting)
You are who you call (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:5, Interesting)
I have had the 911 tracking save a frieds leg before. We were on a motorcycle trip and the bike burst into flames. It was abou t11pm and I had no idea where I was. I call 911 from my cell. I told them I didn't know where I was but my friend was burned really bad. They said not to worry an ambulance and fire truck was on the way and they could get a good idea of my location from my cell phone. I told them that when they got close we would be the two guys standing about 50 yards from the burnign motorcycle. We laughed, my friend go taway without skin grafts, and insurance paid for my motorcycle. Now, lets get rid of that because you think you are important enough for our goverment to track.
Follow the money... (somewhat OT) (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the big problems after the war was that a lot of SS/Gestapo officers destroyed their records in an effort to claim that they'd served with other units, had had lower ranks, or hadn't even served (a similar thing that is being seen with senior Baathists in Iraq today). In the end, the prosecutors wound up proving the service histories of their suspects by finding that all of them had filled out their government pension paperwork when they'd joined their units or received promotions.
Again, it was simple greed (or stinginess) that led to their downfall.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:1, Interesting)
Let X be the US government, and Y be "the terrorists". Presently, group A are considered worthy of medication, while group B are laudable patriots. If we study most countries' histories, and generalise the term "terrorists", this still applies.
Re:law & border (Score:4, Interesting)
Some comment. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Follow the money... (somewhat OT) (Score:3, Interesting)
Why is this story published? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm reminded of a satelite photo from the mid '80s the showed a radar picture of the Nile Delta. Why would you publicly show a picture that told everyone that you could see 30 metres underground durring the Cold War?
Just what can 'they' really monitor if 'they' know that you know that your moble phone is monitored?
Re:law & border (Score:5, Interesting)
True, but thankfully, in many cases, the agencies who have control of the technology are very reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement.
A week ago, my Transportation Planning class went on a field trip, where (among other locations) we visited the Route 91 Express Lanes and the ATSAC [la.ca.us] (made famous by "The Italian Job") Control Center. Route 91 has license plate cameras and OCR equipment which identifies toll evaders when they enter the Express Lanes as well as 35 incident cameras along the 10-mile route, and ATSAC has cameras all over Los Angeles which can watch intersections and streets for incidents. *Both* agencies mentioned that law enforcement has repeatedly approached them for cooperation and information, and that they *never* allow it without a court order.
I think the reasoning was best expressed by the engineer at ATSAC, who said that if they used their cameras for enforcement, it wouldn't be long before the cameras were routinely vandalized and smashed to bits.
It's not about what the technology can do; it's about who controls it and what they perceive as their responsibility.
Al Queda Works For: +1, Interesting (Score:1, Interesting)
To find out, listen to The World's Most Dangerous Leader [mac.com]
Regards,
Kilgore
GSM phone ESN (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Anyone can do this in the UK (Score:2, Interesting)
I've lost my mobile phone... but since you'll have to type 1074 [followus.co.uk] to get the trace approved, I can't get the sucker to tell me where the heck it is...
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:1, Interesting)
The signal from your phone starts out in phase. As the signal propogates towards the multiple antennas, it takes a slightly different path to each antenna, ending up out of phase.
These phase shifts are measured and the return signals are transmitted from the same multiple antennas using exactly the same phase shifts.
The signal then returns to you following the same paths as your outgoing signal (in reverse) and converge on your phone in phase again.
Note that the cell does not track your location, it merely tracks the phase shifting of your signals. This would only provide accurate location data in a featureless landscape. In a city (or even suburb), the path between you and the cell might involve multiple bounces off of buildings, etc.
Location information (Score:3, Interesting)
Location information is generated automatically by the GSM network. Depending on the layout of the GSM net you can determine in which GSM cell the user is and even (roughly) determine his location within the cell. The location info is required for the network to operate properly. All this article has really accomplished is that Al Quaeda is, as this is written, instructing its operatives to ditch their anonymous simms after a certain short period for new ones to make tracking more difficult or to abandon GSM phones alltogether. It would have been nice if more of those terrorist [EXPLETIVE DELETED] had fallen for this before it was advertised by the press. Loose lips sink ships, or burn skyscrapers in this case.
Re:Some precisions (Score:2, Interesting)
- Buy your phone cash, no price plan attached, or second hand (GSM phone aren't simlocked, ie. tied to an operator/price plan, for the most part here except those sold with... a prepaid card for cheap). Anyway, your name isn't attached to the phone in any way.
- Use a prepaid card, change it often. Each time a new phone number nobody knows about.
Now you can call anyone totally anonymously. If you block your ID from the phone, your correspondent won't even get your number. How much more anonymous can you get? Should anyone want to eavesdrop on you, they'd lack any kind of info to begin with. The phone number? It could be any 7-digit combination for each mobile prefix (3 of them so far), with unused numbers being re-assigned after 18 months (the prepaid cards now "self destruct" if not used for 6 months). That's a lot to listen to and analyze. Oh, don't forget you can transmit data as well on those buggers and they can easily be used as modems.
Where do you start if all parties involved, say various members of a terrorist cell, swap phone number and phone regularly, and use them in locations packed with cellphone users? Good luck
Re:Weirdness.. (Score:4, Interesting)
These self immolating morons dont know anything about security. If they knew even a little, they would switch SIMS for each call, and then discard the SIM. But even that would be no good, because if they were always calling from one of ten cells to another set of ten always used cells, you can build a pattern up and start moniroting all the relevant calls. This as all Slashdotters know is Traffic Analysis.
They should be sending messages via a human courrier who memorizes messages. Its slow, but what do they care? They waited years to kill themselvs the first time - anything that reveals their locations is a huge risk...thankfully. What we now have to ask is how many people are they actively monitoring, and if its even one person, why have they not (if they have not) picked these people up?
GWB has hinted that they are bumping these people off - maybe they are all (ex) GSM users?
Mu favourite GSM/Combat related story is the one where MOSSAD blew off the head of a top Hammas man, by switching his cellphone for one that had an explosive charge put into it. Aparently, he was able to use his phone normally. It was detonated only when a call came from a specific number and he answered it, presumably with a suitable delay for him to lift up the phone to his ear and say "Hello". Cellphones are being used for this sort of thig more and more [66.102.11.104]. Fascinating.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:3, Interesting)
You also have the "who watches the watchers" problem as a fundermental problem. With the position of "watcher" being highly attractive to criminal types.
Re:Look at how fast they adapted (Score:3, Interesting)
Please explain to me what the point would be to putting anti-aircraft weapons onboard submarines that couldn't use them without surfacing. Kind of defeats the point of a submarine.
Please also explain to me how even if this was the case (a US Navy ship shot down the airliner) it would remain a secret? Do you really think the crew of the ship would remain silent?
Anywau I always thought the vertical launch tubes were for nukular ICBMs, so what do I know?
On the Ohio SSBN yes. The text that I quoted was talking about the 688I class attack submarine. On those subs the tubes are used for Tomahawks.
gsm monitoring (Score:3, Interesting)