"Are You Friggin Kidding Me?!"

[ND66]

I don't remember the post, but it was posted here before.

Just now it made the news, big time!


Fox news recently reported that the FBI has found a way to monitor your conversations through your cell phone even if it is turned off and your not using it.


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[Brian Ellis]

Before I believe that, I would want something a wee bit more technically explanatory than from a popular media report. Sounds to me more like propaganda to scare people. In fact, I would be sceptical about it, even if it were in standby.

[az]

Spiegel.de (which is usually quite accurate, and popular) reported on it, heise.de (biggest german tech newsticker and publichers of one of the best printed computer magazines) re-reported.

[rylan]

Yeah I have an extremely hard time believing that. If the phone is powered off, its not transmitting. Now if the report said that they could send some signal to turn on your phone and then listen I could believe that.

[TransformX]

In high security zones in Israel, you have to turn your cell phone off and remove the battery.
1. You might have left it on by mistake.
2. Cell phones can be tampered with so they appear to be turned off while not being so.
3. Cell phones can be programmed to auto answer incoming calls.
.
.
.

No need for the FBI for that sort of things, really.

[ND66]

I just would consider FOX News to be more reputable than a Tabloid newspaper….. .

But then again, it could be just a "Slow News" day..... .


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[az]

From the report on Spiegel.de (a few days ago IIRC), it said that the phone is of course on (and connected), but the special software disables the speaker and makes the display look like the phone were off/in standby.

Technically, this is possible (and I know I have said otherwise in the last thread we had about this), but it would be a huge hassle to be able to do this with every phone model, it is of course detectable (but so what? Every means of surveillance is, and they still get used), but apparently, it has been accepted in court.

[VJ]

Transformix:
I suspect that is to make sure you are not using a modified phone which
would allow you to smuggle out data or record stuff without their
knowledge.

With a modified phone, everything is possible. But as you say: it is
easily detected (just hold it next to an old CRT or speaker: if it is
active you'll see/hear much more distortion than when it is just
connected).

But I don't believe it is possible for any off the shelf phone.
Having typed this, I wonder if it is perhaps possible to pick up the
electomagnetic distorion generated by the mic (even if off, its internals
will vibrate and generate some current) using a remote sensor?
(a bit like how it is possible to determine what image is shown on a CRT
from its electromagnetic leakage, or similarly with radios as done in WWII)


Jörg

[schmosef]

my recollection from when the story first broke was that the phones were secretly modified.

[Gurm]

Well OF COURSE you could slip someone a SECRETLY MODIFIED substitute phone, but that hardly counts, does it? The way this is being presented is as if ANYONE with ANY PHONE can suddenly be wiretapped, which is clearly ludicrous.

[schmosef]

i think it's a combination of BDS and some news editors not understanding technology.

[Technoid]

Well, the first thread was more about a phone model that had a bug that allowed that phone to a call any another phone and trick it into activating the mic if I remember correctly.

That idea came from the asumption that mobile phone that are close enough call each other directly without going through the phone system, wich they never do

In this case its as Gurm says

[ND66]

I bet you didn't know this:

4-Year-Old Calls 9-1-1 287 Times On Old Cell Phone

Phone Was Deactivated; Child's Mother Didn't Know It Could Still Make 9-1-1 Calls


(CBS) CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. One-year-old Kaden Saxton was at a toy store Thursday, but his favorite toy couldn't be found there. His favorite toy is mom's cell phone.

"He normally turns the on/off button on and tries to call whoever," said Dana Saxton, Kaden's mother. "No calls to Russia yet, but he's working on it."

Saxton said like many other parents, she has let Kaden play with old deactivated phones -- it's a common practice that caused a big problem at the 911 Center in Carpentersville.

Emergency dispatchers heard a child’s voice, but couldn’t tell where the call was being made from.

At times, 15 to 20 calls came during a shift. Then they stopped for a week.

By the end of last month, a 4-year-old had called QuadCom’s emergency center 287 times using a deactivated cell phone, according to executive director Steve Cordes.

When the girl was finally located, she said she wanted McDonald’s. She gave out her address after the center promised to fill her order.

Instead, it sent police.

The child’s mother didn’t know the phone could still make 911 calls. Because the phone was deactivated, no return phone number or other information turned up on the center’s computers.

Under Federal Communications Commission regulations, deactivated phones still must have access to 911.

Cordes says parents should be careful if they give children old cell phones to play with.

“If I hold the number 9 key down, it says ‘calling emergency,’ ” he demonstrated.

As long as a cell phone has power, any deactivated cell phone can dial 911. Call centers say they get a lot of false alarms because children are using them as toys.

There have been other cases in which a child calls 911 and fakes distress noises. But even if an emergency call sounds suspicious, dispatchers must take the time to determine if there is a real emergency, Cordes said.

“You don’t know if it’s a real call,” he said. “You also have to stop and take the 911 dispatchers away from handling bona fide emergency calls.”

911 operators are hoping get the message with cell phones.

http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/local_story_186095341.html

[az]

Of course I knew: Sometimes my phne can't reach its network or the roaming networks, and one time my SIM got deactivated because I hadn't paid the bill. The phone's display then reads (instead of the usual "e-plus", my carrier) "emergency calls only" (in german, of course).

[FatBastard]

When a Bull gets hungry it eats, then the food is digested, at the end of the digestion process the remaining feces are expelled through the anus.
once this process is competed we are left with some fresh Bullshit. which is a good way to summarize this story.