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protecting yourself from snooping...

 

snooping

British intelligence agency GCHQ has been targeting mobile phone company networks. Telecoms security expert Philippe Langlois explains what they can find this way, and how users can protect themselves from such snooping.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The British intelligence agency GCHQ is hacking into the networks of mobile phone companies operating so-called GRX routers. What are these networks and why are they an attractive target?

Philippe Langlois: These are the "roaming tubes" of the worldwide mobile system. You can basically track every user in the world who is roaming with their smartphone. When roaming, all the Internet surfing and accesses to corporate networks go through these exchanges, and can be eavesdropped on by passively "sniffing" all data, all web pages and all emails.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is it possible to defend against that kind of snooping?

Langlois: Basic security such as encrypted web pages (https), encrypted email (PGP) or encrypted chat (Jabber OTR) will prevent such interception. In that sense, the GRX is not different from a traditional Internet Service Provider. If you're using safe Internet best practice there, you can protect your communication secrecy, but you cannot protect your location.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Can one track a user this way only while he's roaming with his handset? Or does the GRX hacking allow tracking even when the targets are in their home country?

Langlois: By listening passively to a GRX network, one can know where any user is roaming with a coarse location granularity: i.e. their city or region. But GRX also enables making requests that can basically target any subscriber, not only those that are roaming. Though this is an advanced security attack.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Could this kind of access also be used to implant spying software directly on someone's phone?

read more: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-telecom-security-expert-philippe-langlois-on-gchq-spying-a-933870.html

 

 

spy back...

Private firms are selling spying tools and mass surveillance technologies to developing countries with promises that "off the shelf" equipment will allow them to snoop on millions of emails, text messages and phone calls, according to a cache of documents published on Monday.

The papers show how firms, including dozens from Britain, tout the capabilities at private trade fairs aimed at offering nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East the kind of powerful capabilities that are usually associated with government agencies such as GCHQ and its US counterpart, the National Security Agency.

The market has raised concerns among human rights groups and ministers, who are poised to announce new rules about the sale of such equipment from Britain.

"The government agrees that further regulation is necessary," a spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said. "These products have legitimate uses … but we recognise that they may also be used to conduct espionage."

The documents are included in an online database compiled by the research watchdog Privacy International, which has spent four years gathering 1,203 brochures and sales pitches used at conventions in Dubai, Prague, Brasilia, Washington, Kuala Lumpur, Paris and London. Analysts posed as potential buyers to gain access to the private fairs

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/18/private-firms-mass-surveillance-technologies

he should be in a straight-jacket...

The Australian Federal Police has confirmed it has collected phone and internet data on up to four federal MPs.

Australia's relationship with Indonesia is in crisisafter it was revealed that Australian spies tried to tap his phone president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's phone.

But on Monday night, while reporters were diverted by news about the spying allegations in Indonesia, the AFP was being grilled in Senate Estimates.

In a lengthy exchange on the collection of metadata, Senator Nick Xenophon asked AFP Chief Commissioner Tony Negus how many members of parliament had been the subject of authorisation orders allowing the AFP to track their phone calls and email traffic.

The somewhat surprising answer was "less than five".

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-20/afp-confirms-phone-monitoring-federal-mps/5106240

I believe ASIO has been spying on Gus for a long time... The file must be sky high... Unless the bush-fires in Canberra a few years ago burned some pages, ASIO would not be doing its job....  I can cope with them snooping on me... I know they do or have done... BUT SPYING ON MPs?  that's beyond the pale! AND WHICH OF THESE MPs are spied upon? My guess WOULD BE TWO GREENS AND TWO LABOR MPs... Who knows... Is this a distraction from the fact that TONY ABBOTT IS A RUTHLESS IDIOT WHO  should be in a straight-jacket?