FBI Taps Cell Phone Mic as Eavesdropping Tool

[Kris Kumar]

http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

"The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him. Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia. The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone."



While I am impressed with the use of an ordinary cell phone as a tool for eavesdropping, it is ingenious, but there is a scary side to this. If the FBI or the government can do this, then what is preventing others from doing the same. I am guessing that all that it takes is a custom application written for the handset, knowledge of the victim's cell phone number and OTAP (Over The Air Provisioning) technique. I hope these tools and techniques don't become available on the Internet for sale.

[Rocco Augusto]

[Fritzly]

Well, it is really nothing new. Every GSM phone acts as a passive microphone allowing the people using the right equipment, which is not easy to obtain and expensive, to hear converations in the proximity of the phone. In Europe I have seen for years people attending a meeting where confidential issues are discussed taking the battery out of the phones because the system works even if the phone is off. Btw Howard Hughes in the '30s/40s was use to hold his meetings in a special room insulated with led to block transmissions.

[dckiwi]

Reminds me of the old Infinity Transmitter: http://www.spy-nexus.com/bugguide/infinitybug.htm . It will receive the ambient conversation when the phone is on the hook.

[Kris Kumar]

The thing that scares me about this news story is that in this particular case - it is the software that is being installed. No one needs to touch or even look at your cell phone. It is all done remotely, over the air. Recently on my trip to India, I was roaming on the network of an Indian carrier, they not only sent me a welcome SMS (which is a little bit annoying, but still good) but they also installed an application on my Dash without me even getting prompted (this is extremely annoying). The application is a silly one for ringtones, music and wallpapers. I was planning on writing up a post in the coming days about it because I wanted to research the topic (how they did it) a bit. But my India experience combined with the FBI news story scares me.

[sosha]

It's all a little Orwellian to me. Personal freedom and liberties are now a thing of the past in the US. It's quite sad.

[Kris Kumar]

As more and more stuff gets enabled via software and gets connected on the Internet...I am scared to think about the results.

Recently I was watching a CNBC special program called "Big Brother." This was about how we are being monitored and how various companies are building mountains and mountains of information by profiling us. The thing that scared me was that Google stores every single search (every single search right from the day they started) that a user performs and even if we do not sign in, it records it using the IP. In fact the show went to tell how the agencies got the help from Google to solve a crime, because the defendent had done some searches to gather data about the crime he was planning to commit.

I am not the kind of guy who gets paranoid by tech. But I am worried about things falling into the wrong hands too easily.

[Mike Temporale]

[WorksForTurkeys]