[FedCom] Cell Phones ON at POTUS event?

[Dave Emery]

On Tue, Oct 12, 2004 at 04:28:47PM +0000, john-k1rc at juno.com wrote:
> 
> 
> Is it possible to pole the active phones for the numbers and therefor
> know who is at the rally by checking out the owners of the
> phones? -And- gleening any other info from the phones???
> Wouldn't put it past 'em.
> 

	They are known to have technology for this purpose.  Notably
the vehicle with the tall antennas that follows the limo in the
motorcades.

	The ability to track and intercept all the cellphones at a rally
is to be presumed as use of cellphones as triggers for explosive devices
is a standard trick in Iraq and elsewhere and the US governement has
spent millions developing technology to counter this and monitor and
track cellphone traffic in the process.   Something unfortunately quite
necessary in this modern threat environment, I am afraid.

	And it would not surprise me to hear that they are both jamming
the forward control channels of cellphones in the vicinity of the POTUS
(this is widely reported as cellphones go dead after they announce a
request to turn them off) and perhaps also acting as a big local cell
site and capturing all the cellphones in the vicinity and routing their
traffic via computers in the vehicle allowing them to play
man-in-the-middle and capture all the signalling information about what
cellphones are there (getting a list of numbers) and who is calling
whom.  Doing this passively by just listening (particularly for GSM
phones) is quiet difficult because of the encryption used, but
pretending to be a cell base site (or sorta really being one in fact)
and acting as the local cell site for all the phones in the vicinity
makes accessing the  encrypted call data much easier and actually allows
one to become a man in the middle in a connection and intercept virtually
everything.  Plus of course the ability to send the phones various commands
that a cell site can.

	And for targeted cellphones (people of interest to the USSS or
others) I do not doubt they can read out the address books, lists of
recent calls and other personal information stored in the cellphone and
probably do.   Hackers have demonstrated this is possible using
bluetooth technology, and I am quite certain MUCH MORE is possible using
the actual protocols built into cellphones for the conveniance of the
cellphone company customer support folks.  And needless to say, unlike
the hackers, the government has COMPLETE access to the specs and
sourcecode of cellphones and base station gear so they have an easier
job...

	Thus one can assume since many if not most people carry
cellphones they haven't missed the obvious opportunity to get lists of
people at rallies (someone who keeps showing up at multiple events is
obviously suspicious, as are people who have ever made calls to or from
known terrorist numbers - a database they certainly must have on line by
now) or track whatever other information can be gleaned from cellphones
people have with them.

	But whatever the civil liberties implications, one cannot really
blame the folks at NSA and the USSS TSD for trying to protect the POTUS
using what must be a rich source of information not previously readily
available about crowds at rallies...

-- 
   Dave Emery N1PRE,  die at dieconsulting.com  DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493