The Department of homeland security (DHS) was first recognized in Washington, D.C., business control out of their hands – at least partially. Foreign spies are using advanced technology to intercept telephone conversations and messages.
Unauthorized cell-site simulators, also known as the international identifier of the mobile subscribers in the world, IMSI catchers, or stingrays, have long suspected the existence in and around the capital. In 2014, researchers with the security firm ESD America identified 15 hidden devices in the capital and three in nearby Virginia.DHS confirms an unauthorized cell-site simulators in Washington, DC.
Stingrays are increasingly used in domestic law enforcement in recent years. The Union has identified 73 police departments in 25 States, as well as 13 Federal agencies. They work like a net, sending a signal to every cell phone in the area, in contrast to sending only individually targeted device. Then the Stingray is trying to convince the phone that they can do better communication via the signal, essentially eavesdropping, which was to be delivered to the nearest cell tower.
While the police are considered the most frequent users of this technology, they are obliged to cooperate with the FBI to obtain one. However, ESD America CEO Les goldsmith, whose company tracked devices in Washington, said that “it is highly unlikely that Federal law enforcement agencies will use mobile interceptors near the Senate,” adding that he suspects that foreign actors will be for the device.
Stingrays come in a variety of forms: cities can be attached to the aircraft, the smaller can be the size of a briefcase attached to the tower or in the back of a police van; they even come as small as a mobile phone. These devices can cost from 1000 $to 200 000 $depending on their strength. IMSI catchers “are widely available from suppliers, surveillance worldwide and can be built using open source software,” U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-or) wrote to DHS at the end of last year, requiring responses to unauthorized devices, certain ESD America.
Freddy Martinez, Executive Director of the Lucy Parsons lab, the organization that led the effort to get the Chicago police Department to release records about its use of stingrays, which ended in 2016, said the Satellite rays can be put into use for monitoring at the drop of a hat. “We found that they have no policy to warrant requirement because there is a Lower threshold and they have no policies and procedures for checking this equipment at a lower standard of evidence they relied on,” said Martinez.
DHS Christopher Krebs wrote to Senator Wyden on March 26, 2018, stating that the Department’s National protection and programs Directorate (nppd) “there is abnormal activity in the Metropolitan area, appears to be consistent with the international identity of mobile subscribers catchers.”
“Maybe in 2014, 2015, people began to buy these updates to use cell-site simulators… [that] is very important here is only that the price has gone down so much just because the price of technology is always falling,” Martinez said Satellite. “So we’re now in 2018, the price is probably 50% or something.”
Krebs said that “the nppd is not aware of any technical DHS are able to determine the imsi catchers,” adding that to do such a thing, the Agency will require additional funding.
“For Nppd agrees that the use of IMSI catchers by foreign governments to threaten us national and economic security,” Krebs said in the attachment to the letter is visible, designed to solve his issues.
Martinez explained the economic threat from Stingray surveillance: “if you have metadata that a CEO of a major company working late in the office with a group of lawyers, you can imagine that there is a big lawsuit that will be announced on or merger. Or if you nation-state — and the US is doing this in other countries — you can withdraw a certain amount of data. Therefore, there is a significant risk only for the metadata traffic alone.” Martinez also said that the technology can even be used to predict future Federal reserve interest rate changes.
The letter warned of the risks to the privacy of Americans associated with the “attackers” IMSI catchers. “The Department of homeland security, the FBI and the CIA may not be experts, as a threat to the privacy of Americans,” Martinez said Satellite. “You must take them with a grain of salt here. You should not take them seriously when they say things anyway. There are risks, real problems”.
However, according to Martinez, “we have to have the same problems regardless of whether it’s an American Telecom or foreign [one]… just the amount of metadata your phones produced in any case, should you care, regardless of this latest finding DHS.”
“Overall, the nppd according to the misuse of IMSI catchers is a real and growing danger,” letter to Senator Wyden concluded.
Another DHS official, who spoke anonymously with the AP said at the outlet that IMSI catchers were actually discovered during the 90-day trial in January 2017, while the letter from Krebs just told the Agency activity in accordance with such devices.
The anonymous official also told the AP that the Agency DC sweep was done in cooperation with ESD America. Goldsmith refused to answer the claims of the official.
The Wyden said in a statement on Tuesday, after the arrival of the letter from the Ministry of internal security, States that “leaving the security of telephone companies proved disastrous.”
The concern of Martinez repeated visible, but said: “there are two parallel problems. Telecommunications companies have been aware of these issues significantly decades, and they seem to have no appetite for addressing these problems. It really doesn’t hurt their essence, right? So without financial incentive, probably never will have the appetite for it.”
While the telecommunication company remained mostly silent on cell-site simulators, the statement INB by Wyden and receive anonymous officials, the AP for the first time the intelligence community has publicly taken a bone from the industry.
“They probably do not care about burning their own sources,” said Martinez of the intelligence community. “It is also a huge amount of information that they use themselves to sort the collection targets and the like… if they wanted to fix it, it’s hard to say what will look. I don’t know what their concerns may be because they use the same sources that they are concerned about”.
Martinez noted that real reform can be difficult regardless of the lack of financial incentives and concerns of the intelligence community in addressing the topic. “One of the things that come out of the report was basically that the Congress did not say about these issues,” while the Wyden ” seems to be the only person who knew or was informed.”
“It’s important for things Congress is supposed to regulate,” said Martinez.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
