Category Archives: Cell-Site Analysis

FBI’s Smartphone Surveillance Tool Revealed

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fbis FBIs Smartphone Surveillance Tool Revealed A stingray, made by Harris Corp. Courtesy of U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

A legal fight over the government’s use of a secret surveillance tool has provided new insight into how the controversial tool works and the extent to which Verizon Wireless aided federal agents in using it to track a suspect.

Court documents in a case involving accused identity thief Daniel David Rigmaiden describe how the wireless provider reached out remotely to reprogram an air card the suspect was using in order to make it communicate with the government’s surveillance tool so that he could be located.

Rigmaiden, who is accused of being the ringleader of a $4 million tax fraud operation, asserts in court documents that in July 2008 Verizon surreptitiously reprogrammed his air card to make it respond to incoming voice calls from the FBI and also reconfigured it so that it would connect to a fake cell site, or stingray, that the FBI was using to track his location.

The secretive technology, generically known as a stingray or IMSI catcher, allows law enforcement agents to spoof a legitimate cell tower in order to trick nearby mobile phones and other wireless communication devices like air cards into connecting to the stingray instead of a phone carrier’s legitimate tower. When devices connect, stingrays can see and record their unique ID numbers and traffic data, as well as information that points to the device’s location.

FBI’s Smartphone Surveillance Tool Revealed | DFI News.

Texas Fighting Back against Smuggled Prison Cell Phones

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texas 1 Texas Fighting Back against Smuggled Prison Cell Phones X-Ray showing cell phone inside of an inmate. Courtesy of Texas Department of Criminal Justice Inspector General

 

In Texas prisons last year, more than 900 cell phones were confiscated. Most, 738, were not discovered until an inmate had used it.

Inside the walls of Mineral Wells prison 117 were found, the most recovered at any facility.

To access the information stored inside confiscated cell phones, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice created a forensics lab. When attached to readers and sophisticated software, every call, text and picture taken on a phone can be extracted.

Texas Fighting Back against Smuggled Prison Cell Phones | DFI News.

FBI Prepares to Defend ‘Stingray’ Cell Phone Tracking

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fbi 10 FBI Prepares to Defend Stingray Cell Phone Tracking One of the so-called stingray cell phone tracking devices, which impersonates a cell tower. Courtesy of CNet

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s secretive “Stingray” surveillance technology that allows police to surreptitiously track the locations of cell phones and other mobile devices will itself go on trial in an Arizona courtroom.

Attorneys representing the U.S. Department of Justice are expected to defend warrantless use of stingray devices, which trick mobile devices into connecting to them by impersonating legitimate cell towers. Prosecutors filed court documents saying stingrays were used in investigations in Arizona and Wisconsin going back to 2008.

In the legal skirmishing leading up to tomorrow’s three-hour hearing, federal attorneys have told U.S. District Judge David Campbell that the defendant in this case, Daniel Rigmaiden, did not have reasonable “privacy expectations” in the whereabouts of his Verizon mobile broadband card and “thus the agents in this case were not required to obtain a warrant.”

FBI Prepares to Defend ‘Stingray’ Cell Phone Tracking | DFI News.

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MI5, GCHQ and industry join forces to fight cybercrime

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computer keyboard 008 MI5, GCHQ and industry join forces to fight cybercrime

Intelligence agencies will work alongside the private sector to combat cybercrime. Photograph: Martin Rogers/Workbook Stock

Cyber-security experts from industry are to operate alongside the intelligence agencies for the first time in an attempt to combat the growing online threat to British firms.

The government is creating a so-called fusion cell where analysts fromMI5 and GCHQ, the domestic eavesdropping agency, will work with private sector counterparts.

The cell is part of the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (Cisp), launched on Wednesday, to provide industry with a forum to share details of techniques used by hackers as well as methods of countering them.

At any one time there will be about 12 to 15 analysts working at the cell, based at an undisclosed location in London.

“What the fusion cell will be doing is pulling together a single, richer intelligence picture of what is going on in cyberspace and the threats attacking the UK,” a senior official said.

“What we are trying to do is get that better intelligence picture and push it out to industry in a way that they can take action on, so it is very action-orientated.”

Although the industry representatives will not have direct access to classified intelligence material, they will face security vetting.

The Cisp initiative grew out of talks in 2011 between industry and David Cameron. It led to a pilot project last year involving 80 leading companies, codenamed Programme Auburn. It will be expanded to cover 160 firms from the finance, defence, energy, telecoms and pharmaceutical sectors.

With companies reluctant to discuss cyber-attacks or breaches of security in public, officials acknowledge that confidentiality is crucial, so companies involved will not be named.

“Everything about information-sharing has to be based on trust,” another official said. “Most companies still remain cautious about talking about the cyber threats they face in public.”

The firms will have access to a secure web portal, described as a “Facebook for cyber-security threats”, run on social network lines, where they can choose who they share information with.

It is expected that other firms will be invited to join as the scheme develops, although officials stressed that future expansion would be at a pace consistent with maintaining trust and confidentiality.

Launching the scheme, the Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, said the government was determined to make Britain one of the safest places to do business in cyberspace.

“We know that cyber-attacks are happening on an industrial scale and businesses are by far the biggest victims of cybercrime in terms of industrial espionage and intellectual property theft, with losses to the UK economy running into billions of pounds annually,” he said.

“This innovative partnership is breaking new ground through a truly collaborative partnership for sharing information on threats and to protect UK interests in cyberspace.”

MI5 and industry join forces to fight cybercrime | Technology | guardian.co.uk.

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Contraband Cell Phone Detection & Location in US Correctional Facilities

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UWB Enhanced Time Difference of Arrival System

By Benjamin Lonske, Intelligent Automation Incorporated (IAI); Eric van Doorn, IAI; Satya Ponnaluri, IAI and Arvind Bhat, IAI

The purpose of the proposed technology development and evaluation effort is to design, implement and test an effective system for the detection and localization of cellular phones in correctional facilities. Correction officials have identified the problem of cell phones in prisons as one of the toughest issues they face. The phones, smuggled in by guards or family members and activated with hard-to-trace prepaid calling plans, are a lifeline for criminals and gang members to order hits, buy drugs and plan escape attempts from behind bars. We are developing a prototype Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) emitter detection and location system, and ultimately will demonstrate the system at Lawrenceville Correctional Center. The demonstrated system will be capable of detecting and locating cell phones in real time.

Following are the key conclusions that can be drawn about the tests:
The results indicate, as expected, that the signal received outside can be better than that received inside depending on the proximity of transmitter and receiver. High frequency signals (i.e., WCDMA 1710-1755 MHz and PCS 1850-1910 MHz) attenuate more than low frequency signals such as those of GSM 824- 849 MHz. When the receiver and transmitter are far apart as is the case in the outdoor test scenarios corresponding to Test# {7,8,9}; {16,17,18}; {19,20,21}, the received signal is very weak, and the corresponding WCDMA and PCS signals are not captured by the Spectrum Analyzer. We observe significant frequency selective behavior in some test scenarios, especially for WCDMA and PCS signals, in both indoor and outdoor settings.

Read the Executive Summary.

Read the Final Report.

View all recently added publications and multimedia.

Contraband Cell Phone Detection & Location in Correctional Facilities | DFI News.

Nearly Every NYC Crime Involves Cyber, Says Manhattan DA

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CybercrimeEvent ManhattanDA 590x394 Nearly Every NYC Crime Involves Cyber, Says Manhattan DA

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance speaks at a symposium called “Cybercrime in the World Today 2013″ at Pace University in Manhattan on Feb. 28, 2013. Vance said that cybercrime is the fastest growing crime trend in New York. (Joshua Philipp/The Epoch Times)

You may want to think twice the next time you need money from a curbside ATM, deciding instead to pay for a meal with a credit card.NEW YORK—Prosecutions for cybercrime and identity theft in Manhattan have increased by 50 percent in the last five years, and criminals have been rigging ATM machines and scanning credit cards when no one is looking.

“Cybercrime is the fastest growing crime trend in New York, and around the country,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, during a symposium called “Cybercrime in the World Today 2013″ at Pace University on Feb. 28. “The Manhattan police precincts now record cybercrime and identity theft as their most frequently reported complaints.”

According to Vance, cybercrime is not just a growing trend—it is a fundamental shift in the way modern crime works. Modern crime has already reached a point where nearly every crime in the city involves a cybercomponent.

“It is rare that a case does not involve some kind of cyber or computer element that we prosecute in our office—whether it is homicide, whether it’s a financial crime case, whether it’s a gang case where the gang members are posting on Facebook where they’re going to meet,” said Vance.

The trend is not just small-time crooks acting on their own, either. Many local criminals are working with international hackers—often hired guns in the former Soviet Bloc who can help them con people from the other side of the world. Vance said that organized crime rings are also getting in on the game and are realizing that cybercrime is less risky—yet more lucrative—than even the drug trade.

Fighting Cybercrime

The situation is not all doom and gloom, however, and New York City is helping to lead the way in a cross-department battle against cybercrime.

“So what do we do about this, how can we stop it, what kind of recovery plans do we need to have in place?” said Pace University President Stephen Friedman during a speech at the symposium, citing recent news of cybercrime and Chinese hackers targeting U.S. critical infrastructure.

“I believe that answering those questions requires the kinds of cooperation and partnership that we see here today,” Friedman said.

The city is getting help from the Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), local businesses, and others. This system of cooperation was actually set up in 2001 when President George W. Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act (H.R. 3162) into law. The act established the Electronic Crime Task Forces (ECTFs) under the Secret Service.

According to the Secret Service website, “The concept of the ECTF network is to bring together not only federal, state and local law enforcement, but also prosecutors, private industry and academia.”

CybercrimeEvent Standing 350x234 Nearly Every NYC Crime Involves Cyber, Says Manhattan DA

The panel of speakers at the Feb. 28, 2013, “Cybercrime in the World Today 2013″ symposium stand for a photo. (L-R) Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Secret Service New York Field Office Paul Mahon, Deloitte & Touche LLP Principal Kelly Bissell, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants CEO Helen Brand, Pace University Computer Information Systems Program Chair Dr. Darren Hayes, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Officer Joe Leonard, Co-founder of the Verizon Business Investigative Response Unit Christopher Novak, and Executive District Attorney and Chief of the Manhattan DA Investigation Division David Szuchman. (Joshua Philipp/The Epoch Times)

The basic purpose of the ECTF, it states, “is the prevention, detection, mitigation and aggressive investigation of attacks on the nation’s financial and critical infrastructures.”

Paul Mahon, assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service New York Field Office, who moderated the Pace event, said that his office is available to help local businesses with cybersecurity.

“For private industries, the Secret Service—through DHS and through the PATRIOT Act—has been mandated to reach out to you and help in any way that we can,” Mahon said. “There’s no cost associated with it.”

“If a small company does want to talk about their security system, we can give them free advice on how to best protect [their networks],” he added.

Digital Evidence

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office also received $4.2 million last year to build a cybercrime lab. It works as the city’s crime scene investigation lab for computers, where investigators can sift through data for evidence and search hacked hard drives for digital fingerprints.

Working with digital evidence is not easy, however. Computer forensics can be even more difficult to work with than physical evidence.

“You have to prove to the court that the data hasn’t been altered, that it does stand, and the accused was the one who should be standing trial,” Mahon said. “It’s a tumultuous process.”

At the end of the day, however, cybercrime is a new field for both criminals and law enforcement. Vance said that while more crime in New York is moving to the wires, through the cooperation between businesses, academia, and local and federal law enforcement, “we are in Manhattan having a lot of success.”

He said that when most of us think of “crime scenes,” television shows like “Law and Order” may come to mind—with yellow tape and the flashing lights of police cars. “But I think we all know today, the crime scene we think of is a different type of crime scene,” he said. “And now when I look back to the 1980s, when I was an assistant DA, we could not have had a more different picture of criminal trends in Manhattan than we do today,” Vance said. “Today, it’s identity theft and cybercrime. That’s what’s happening in every neighborhood around Manhattan, and I think, around the country.”

Nearly Every NYC Crime Involves Cyber, Says Manhattan DA | New York City | United States | Epoch Times.

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