Posted on 09/01/2014 10:51:41 PM PDT by InMemoriam
Like many [ultra-secure phones], the CryptoPhone 500...features high-powered encryption. Les Goldsmith, the CEO of ESD America, says the phone also runs a customized or "hardened" version of Android that removes 468 vulnerabilities that his engineering team team found in the stock installation of the OS.
His mobile security team also found that the [standard] Samsung Galaxy SIII leaks data to parts unknown 80-90 times every hour.
[snip]
To show what the CryptoPhone can do that less expensive competitors cannot, he points me to a map that he and his customers have created, indicating 17 different phony cell towers known as “interceptors,” detected by the CryptoPhone 500 around the United States during the month of July alone. Interceptors look to a typical phone like an ordinary tower. Once the phone connects with the interceptor, a variety of “over-the-air” attacks become possible, from eavesdropping on calls and texts to pushing spyware to the device.
[snip]
Who is running these interceptors and what are they doing with the calls? Goldsmith says we can’t be sure, but he has his suspicions.
“What we find suspicious is that a lot of these interceptors are right on top of U.S. military bases. So we begin to wonder – are some of them U.S. government interceptors? Or are some of them Chinese interceptors?” says Goldsmith. “Whose interceptor is it? Who are they, that's listening to calls around military bases? Is it just the U.S. military, or are they foreign governments doing it?
[snip]
Whether your phone uses Android or iOS, it also has a second operating system that runs on a part of the phone called a baseband processor. The baseband processor functions as a communications middleman between the phone’s main O.S. and the cell towers.
[more at link]
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Any system devised can be hijacked.
Anyone that thinks FR is secure is a nut.
Sounds like we troglodytes that just use simple cell phones that just act like a phone rather than a substitute for a real life are not at risk?
Ping!
I seriously doubt Beijing is dialing up rogue cell towers when it's so much "easier" to commandeer existing hardware.
On the other hand... if we know, the Black Flag monkey brigades know, too. But, after all the more recent security exposure, it would be a wonder if America's most dangerous enemies aren't using semaphores by this time.
I’m moving to carrier pigeon.
Any phone that claims to be secure will not be allowed. The NSA will require back door access to any phone sold on the US soil.
There is no way to secure any software running on a smart phone. To do so would require total control of the hardware.
The best that can be done is to add hard encryption to a device that acts as speaker and microphone for the phone.
i.e. A bluetooth earpiece that has built in encryption and has certified hardware and software.
Commercial phones are totally hacked and chipped and unusable for secure communications. trust me on this...
‘_________using semaphores by this time.’
SMOKE SIGNALS
I told the family a long time ago WE need to use smoke signals.
(Is that racist - - )???
Last time I looked, FR's URLs began with http://freerepublic.com/... That's an unencrypted connection. That's how it's been all along.
Even if FR used https, the gubmint could still track who was connecting when and work backwards from that.
And that ignores subpoena power demanding access to server logs, etc. You see, not all TLAs are created equal. Some can arrest you and need subpoena powers. Others just do it, but can't bust you. Sometimes, TLAs conspire to violate defendants' rights. This happens most often in the War on Drugs. NSA gives DEA a hint. DEA then fills in the blanks to look like their discovery is a result of legitimate police work. If the defendant's lawyer had the full story, the evidence would be tossed. But he doesn't.
To constuct a cell tower or anything else for that matter over a given height in most areas require a local zoning permit. Plus annual payment to the land owner.
Not to worry, soon the moslims will knock us back 600 years.
I’m not sure they are talking about ACTUAL towers - just what is perceived by your phone to be a tower. Could be some transmitter in the black van parked across the street from the local KKK or Islamic prayer meeting. Or perhaps a transmitter hidden amongst all the other antenna on an actual tower. I’m just guessing though.
Claims that slower 2G data is somehow easier to decrypt are really strange. The iPhone internal data is still encrypted at either 256 or 512 bit encryption, depending on the iOS level, and whether you send the data at 2G, 3G, or 4G speeds makes absolutely no difference on the difficulty of deciphering the data. . . which without having the 256 or 512 bit key is essentially impossible in any useful time. Even Apple cannot decrypt it. So exactly what purpose are they hinting at here?
2G is easier to hook into to acquire digital voice messaging and to decipher the simple coding used by the baseband OSes for that. . . but it's not going to get access to other data stored on your iPhone. Nor could the simple EPROM based Baseband OS access or control much of the sophisticated hardware on the rest of the iPhone, contrary to what some conspiracy proponents are claiming. Assuming it could, you've got to get the instructions ON the EPROM. Not easy.
I think this guy is trying to sell a $3,500 Android phone by pushing FUD.
You are correct, it’s called “Stingray” and could be mounted to a existing cell tower, but more likely used in an undercover van or other vehicle. See:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3197737/posts
and
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/08/cellphone-data-spying-nsa-police/3902809/
They know who we are and where to pick us up.... They’re just waiting for the time.
Not if you're a redskin.
Good luck. I bet $1,000,000 you can’t intercept my cell phone calls.
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