Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Cell Phones Become Instant Bugs! from Telecom Digest
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1999 09:01:58 -0400
Date: Mon, 09 Aug 99 14:37:28 PDT From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Subject: Cell Phones Become Instant Bugs! Greetings. A disturbing application for the new generations of digital cell phones appears to be developing -- many models can be easily used as remote-controlled clandestine listening devices ("bugs"), often with little or no modification. It turns out that many current cell phone models can be set into modes where they are completely silent (no "boops" or "beeps") and will answer incoming calls automatically. This latter mode is designed for use in hands-free (headset) situations. A cell phone left in a strategic location set in such modes may be silently interrogated from virtually anywhere on the planet with a simple phone call, and will happily transmit the room conversations back to the caller. When the caller hangs up, the cell phone resets, ready for the next call. In some cases, phones can be placed into this "automatic answer" mode without any accessories being required. For some models, a headset connector needs to be plugged into the phone, which may be modified to allow the phone to continue using its built-in microphone when in its "bugging" mode, or could trivially have a remote microphone wired via a very thin cable to the actual cell phone some distance away. Even without an outside source of power, many modern digital cell phones can have standby times of a week or more, and be able to transmit conversations for a number of hours. With an outside power source, they could perform their bugging functions indefinitely. Since various commercial firms are now planning to offer a wide variety of location-based services using cell phone location tracking capabilities, (which were originally mandated for 911 use), it seems likely that planted cell phones may soon be usable to track the location of persons or moving vehicles as well. Just picture a cell phone hidden in a car trunk with a tiny microphone wired up behind the rear seat, for example. The car wiring would also provide an ideal source of continuing power for both bugging and tracking via the cell phone. Simple, cheap, and accessible from practically anywhere! Cell phones can also of course act as communications platforms for a variety of other add-on devices, such as tiny cameras, small Global Positioning System (GPS) units (for highly accurate location tracking that works *today*), and so on. While the current generations of cell phones have fairly limited data rates, and there are a variety of technical analog vs. digital issues involved, many cell phones can still be used for such "enhanced" applications even in the existing limited data bandwidth environment. It must also be pointed out that a hidden cell phone could also be used to remotely control or trigger apparatus connected to the phone, under the command of the caller. With cell phones becoming smaller and the associated networks ever more ubiquitous, this whole area has a great deal of potential for serious privacy-invasive and other abuses. Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Moderator, PRIVACY Forum --- http://www.vortex.com; Host, "Vortex Daily Reality Report & Unreality Trivia Quiz" --- http://www.vortex.com/reality [An earlier version of this appeared in Lauren's PRIVACY Forum Digest, (http://www.vortex.com/privacy/priv.08.11) Saturday, 7 August 1999 Volume 08 : Issue 11, which he has augmented for RISKS. PGN] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 12:28:45 -0700 From: "Clark, David" <Dave.Clark () BCHydro bc ca> Subject: Cell phone sends jet off-course
From: "Telecom News - August 6-9, 1999" News Summary "CELL PHONE SENDS JET OFF-COURSE", *Ottawa Citizen*, 7 Aug 1999 "A Chinese plane drifted 30 degrees off course because a passenger failed to switch off his mobile telephone. A crash was narrowly avoided after the cabin crew found the phone during a desperate search while approaching Beijing airport. Mobile phones are banned on planes worldwide but a direct link with instrument failure has never been proved. The Beijing incident is likely to provoke new air safely fears in Asia where at least one crash is attributed to on-board phone use."
Current thread:
- IP: Cell Phones Become Instant Bugs! from Telecom Digest Dave Farber (Aug 17)