Phone Security Alert

[newyorkboy]

My female housemate recently had a stalker who was a 24-year-old computer geek. He was constantly showing up where she was and seemed to know what she was doing. SHE had previously used a tracking program on her ex-husband which she installed on his cell phone which would give her his location, record his calls, voicemails and texts (she showed this to me 3 years ago) so she decided to see if her stalker had done this to hers (they were a couple for about a week).

Anyway, she takes her phone to another computer geek that she knows. He goes through it completely; there is a program that had been installed REMOTELY. Apparently if they have the phone number, and the name of the service this can be done even by civilians (military has had the tech for years). He was able to find the program and install a block (that I'm sure can eventually be bypassed). But WOW! If a 24 year old geek civilian can do this, surely LE can, thought the legality is definitely suspect. Oh, and this was a burner phone through Boost Mobile.

SO, here are some COMSEC recommendations for ALL. LE, crazy clients or suspicious wives (or suspicious husbands to be P.C.) could somehow gain access this stuff. If you have a computer geek friend that you trust, have them check over your phone every so often. If you are able to, replace your entire phone every 3-6 months and get a new number. May not make you completely safe, but don't make it easier for THEM.

I thought I was done with this shit when I retired from the military!
It was so much easier when we used street corners.....

BE SAFE OUT THERE

NewYorkBoy

[oldguy57II]

The technology that is being referred to here exists. It can be remotely applied to any phone with just the phone number. It is expensive. The 4th Amendment should protect you from the government installing this surveillance software on your phone. Unfortunately, the Congress and the Bush administration pushed through the Patriot Act, which was followed with other laws which have significantly eroded your rights to prevent this without obtaining a warrant. It has also created a shadow court system that issues warrants with little or no oversight. Fortunately, this trade is not the focus of these laws. I would highly recommend you not engage in espionage, because they will be all over you. Interestingly, there is little to stop industry or private citizens from using this technology for reasons other than enforcing laws. A malicious ex or a boss that thinks you are doing him wrong can use this because it is available commercially. It is prohibitively expensive last time I checked. That is more than 2 cents worth, but I do want to confirm what nyb is saying.

[Luxie]

This is awful. I'm so sorry your friend has to go through that. Thank you for the heads up!

[cacophonist_international]

Any reasonably competent software developer or script kiddie that has the motivation to grab one of several, freely available, APIs, could write and deploy the code to track someone. A good reason to use a "burner" when engaging in actives best kept discrete.

[oldguy57II]

What I am talking about can also turn the video on on you selfie camera without you knowing. It can mine data from your phone and controls you phone as much as you do, unknown to you. And yes, it knows where you are.

[nebman70]

You guys make me laugh. Oldguy57II - The patriot act did not erode your rights under the constitution. NSA, CIA, and the FBI all still warrants to tap the phones of American Citizens. I worked for two of those entities in the past and I will tell you that you are wrong about them tapping your phones. They got bigger fish to fry than you and anyone else in this hobby. The cops need warrants as well and they have to show probable cause of terrorism or some other crime to get the warrants. The young computer geek hacker on the other hand, look out for those guys cause they do not answer to anyone except themselves.

[Guest090920]

Moved to Coed from Alerts.