The U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly deployed specialized equipment to gather mobile phone data, including unique device identifiers and other sensitive data, from spoofed cell phone towers installed in planes.
As outlined by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the supposed secret spy program equips small aircraft with a device dubbed a "dirtbox," which pulls data from mobile phones by masquerading as a cell tower. The project aims to identify criminals through their devices, but the wide net also snares cellphones used by the general public.
Purportedly operated by the U.S. Marshals Service's Technical Operations Group, the dirtboxes are manufactured by Digital Receiver Technology, a subsidiary of Boeing, and installed on fixed-wing craft like those built by Cessna. The two-foot-square devices identify themselves as legitimate cell towers with the strong signals, tricking mobile phones into reporting IMSI information.
Privacy safeguards appear to be built in as the dirtboxes parse out devices linked to criminals and "lets go" of phones that are not suspect. Sources, however, suggest data is still gathered prior to release.
These people said the system can gather data and the general locations of tens of thousands of phones in a single flight. In addition, dirtboxes can interrupt calls, while newer versions are capable of jamming signals and scraping rich data like texts and photos.
Since dirtboxes are exploiting the fundamental structure shared by all cellular networks, no level of encryption is able to withstand the noninvasive attack. The DOJ would not confirm or deny the program's existence, but did say that its agencies are in compliance with federal laws. It is unclear how often the planes are sent out, but sources claim the program is operating on a regular basis.
52 Comments
It's too bad DED didn't write this story. He would be able to do the mental gymnastics in order to find a way to pin this on google and samsung.
I have no problem for national security DOJ gathering/listening my cell call. Only, problem is those in charge of dissecting such info are human/people. None can know who among them are kind bad cops who can either exploit such info against you or pass such info for money to someone to use against you directly or indirectly. NSA does similar thing. Scary.
Sadly, 9/11 has created a siege mentality by the U.S. government, which I don't feel is shared by the U.S. people. I hope this state of affairs changes for the better. There is far too much loss of privacy which needs to be regained.
[quote name="wood1208" url="/t/183414/doj-reportedly-spies-on-mobile-phone-owners-using-fake-airplane-mounted-cell-towers#post_2639156"]I have no problem for national security DOJ gathering/listening my cell call. Only, problem is those in charge of dissecting such info are human/people. None can know who among them are kind bad cops who can either exploit such info against you or pass such info for money to someone to use against you directly or indirectly. NSA does similar thing. Scary.[/quote] In that case, you have no objection to being held for no reason by spies and questioned under duress. There is no difference.
NO problem here .... as long as they don't sell my private info to google or samsung ...