Good day!
Today we will consider the most pressing security issues of using mobile phones and give answers to them.
This information is useful to everyone, IMHO.
Question: Is it true that a mobile phone can be tracked?
Answer: Yes it is true. The included mobile phone can be tracked by the telecom operator. Any operator, not just the one whose SIM card is used at the moment. You can track a mobile phone without a SIM card at all. And with exactly the same accuracy as a mobile phone with a SIM card.
The conditions are as follows: the phone is turned on and is in the area of the operator's network, which is monitoring.
Question: Is it true that a mobile phone can be turned on remotely?
Answer: Yes it is true. The telecom operator from his equipment is able to turn on the mobile phone remotely. This action does NOT require any super military-secret hardware. All actions are performed on standard OpSoS equipment. The operator can turn it on in both active and passive mode. In passive mode, the phone will not visually show any signs that it is turned on. To do this, it is necessary that the phone is powered, that is, it has a battery and it is charged, and that the phone has such an opportunity at all. Not all cellular standards and not all phone models support the remote wake-up function.
Question: Is it true that a mobile phone can be used for remote wiretapping and peeping through a camera?
Answer: Yes it is true. But not all phone models are equipped with such functions. There are both old models of devices through which you can listen (watch) remotely, and new ones. Among the new ones, there are also models that do not have this function at all. Large manufacturers assist special services and try to include this functionality in their models. But not all countries and manufacturers support the Americans in this endeavor. There is information (unverified) that our Korean-Japanese-Chinese friends are not very helpful in this matter.
Question: Is it true that a mobile phone with GPS can be tracked more accurately than a mobile phone without this function?
Answer: No, this is not true. The included mobile phone is monitored by the signals of the cellular stations to which it is connected and nothing else.
The reasons for this are very simple:
-If the phone is not in the range of a cellular network, then there is simply no way to connect to it, which means that the data from the GPS module is simply useless.
-If the phone is in the network, it is usually connected to 6-7 cellular stations. Knowing their exact location and being able to make up to 35 triangulations, you can calculate the location of the mobile phone with an accuracy of one cubic meter in a few seconds. And then the question is, why use the GPS module, if it will give no higher accuracy? And the very procedure for quietly activating the GPS module is not so simple technically.
Question: Is it true that a mobile phone stores data about all SIM cards that were inserted into it?
Answer: Yes and no.
Yes, until you reset the phone to factory settings, it will remember the last inserted SIM cards (depending on the model). After a hard reset, the phone is clean. But all combinations of SIM + IMEI numbers are stored in the operator's database. That is, as soon as SIM + IMEI is lit on the network, they are automatically entered into the operators' database. How long they keep the data is unknown. I think for a long time.
Question: Is it possible to rewrite the phone, change the IMEI number and the phone will be clean and untraceable?
Answer: No, it is not so. All GSM chips have serial numbers nailed to them during manufacture. These numbers are taken into account. That is, if you really want to, you can trace the original IMEI number by the chip number.
Question: And they say that if you have 2 mobile phones with you and one of them is turned off (the battery is removed), and the second is being watched, then the first will be calculated, because it is nearby?
Answer: No, this is nonsense. It is technically impossible to turn on and track a de-energized device. The state cannot abolish physics yet. There is a possibility that in the near future there will be attempts to install identification chips in phones that work without power. But at the moment such developments are not known to me.
Question: What is the error in calculating the coordinates of a mobile device when tracking?
Answer: I did not calculate the exact error. But roughly now a stationary apparatus can be calculated with an accuracy of up to 1 cubic meter. But all this is mathematics, physics and geodesy. I think that it is not so important, because the territory is usually cordoned off by blocks.
Question: How do I know if they are listening to me or not? Control measures?
Answer: If there is no battery in the phone, then they do not listen. If you are interested in whether your conversations are being listened to? This is not computable, because the wiretapping goes to the telecom operator and is not reflected in any way on your phone.
You can understand whether your phone is on in quiet mode by its (phone) temperature. In the process of wiretapping, there is an actual GSM connection as during a conversation. And the corresponding battery consumption. If the phone is just turned on quietly, for example, to find out your coordinates, then it seems to stand in the usual standby mode.
My opinion is that if there are suspicions, then we take out the battery.
Question: If I have a phone with zero IMEI and I often change SIM cards, can it still be tracked?
Answer: If tracking means finding the coordinates of a mobile phone by means of a telecom operator, then yes.
Q: Are all kinds of mobile phones traceable?
Answer: I am not ready to approve for the NMT standard, but all later developments allow you to track the device on, regardless of its model. Those. if you have a brick for 100 rubles, then this does not increase your safety.
The misconception that older devices are less trackable is not due to the devices themselves, but to the fact that as cellular networks evolve, traceability has improved. Previously, accuracy within a radius of 25 meters was considered the limit, but computing power has grown since then.
Question: Legal security of a mobile phone.
Answer: If you have someone else's SIM card, issued for the left person and the left phone, then it is almost impossible to prove that it was you who called someone on this particular phone and to attract you on this basis for complicity in something. Since you can always say that you found the device exactly as it is.
True, if you were specially monitored and prepared to receive you for this call, then you will not be able to excuse yourself.
Question: My device's IMEI looks like 0000000000000 does this mean that the device cannot be traced?
Answer: No, you can track any device. It is important for the system that the number is, not its type. IMEI of this kind from the factory cannot be. This is clearly a modified IMEI. These "weird" IMEI numbers are getting more attention than they need to be. Better to put IMEI similar to the one that may be in your device.
Question: How to buy and use the device correctly so that it doesn't display the CPCO on me?
Answer: For added security, you can follow simple rules:
1. Buy mobile phones for blacks only through a figurehead and without documents (send a neighbor, brother, matchmaker, friend or drop to the kiosk). If the device was not purchased by you personally, then at the confrontation you will not be identified
2. Use SIM cards that were not issued to you. Top up your account only in cash (and of course not at an ATM with cameras) or anonymous money (for example, from a qiwi issued not to you).
3. Change SIM cards and devices regularly (the degree of regularity depends entirely on your paranoia).
4. NEVER insert someone else's SIM cards into your (registered for you) device and registered SIM cards for YOU in a STRANGE device.
5. Let your colleagues know that if you answered with a passphrase, then it's time for them to start hiding. The passphrase should be simple wording. For example, if your name is Dima, then the phrase may be like this: "Listen, Dima!" To such your answer, you should answer that you probably made a mistake with the number and correctly respond. The phrase can be anything, but the main thing is that it should be simple and standard.
Question: How long does OPSOS keep data on its servers? Are long-term backups made? Interested in both sms logs and just IMEI data + sim number + base station number to which the device was connected?
Answer: By law, in my opinion, they are required to store all billing data for up to 3 years. The operator is not obliged to store data that allow to find out the location of a particular mobile at a given period of time. But one way or another, they store all this data. About five years ago, I witnessed a conversation between engineers of one of the small operators, the conversation concerned backups and SORM. The engineers agreed that it is easier to archive and store all the service information from hundreds, than to disassemble the data into garbage and useful ones.
I then concluded that most likely all operators have a total archive of all SMS correspondence of all billing data (including connections to cells of all SIM + IMEI variants) and tracking data.
And most likely, there is no total archive of call records, MMS, and Internet traffic. The approximate amount of data from a loaded cell from SMS, billing and tracking is less than 10MB per day in the archive. Consider yourself if a city with a million population with a large area requires less than 100 cellular stations.
Question: Is information about the location, as well as wiretapping, provided to special services on demand? Or are there any requests, permissions, etc. needed?
Answer: Officially, there must be a request. Lawyers will advise you more correctly. But in reality, Operators work with local authorities on a call. In general, in Russia, personal contacts decide EVERYTHING!
Question: Are telephone conversations constantly analyzed for the detection of "dangerous" words and phrases?
Answer: Now new equipment is being prepared that will perform these functions. But due to the fact that operators are forced to buy and install this equipment, as well as to certify it at their own expense, the process goes on with a creak. It was the same with SORM. A law was passed, an order was issued to deliver to everyone within a month, but in reality SORM was put in place for more than 3 years.
Question: Is it true that a telephone conversation from a moving car is much more difficult to intercept, since the distance between it and the intercepting equipment (if it is not in the car) increases and the signal weakens.
Answer: If direct interception equipment is used, then of course yes. The farther from the signal source, the weaker the signal and the less effective the interception. But at the moment, to intercept conversations and traffic of cellular subscribers, they use the equipment of cellular operators. And in this regard, running after the subscriber becomes unnecessary. All traffic between the cellular equipment of the OPSOS and the mobile phone will be quietly sniffed in the technical center of the OPSOS. Including SMS, Internet traffic and the location of the transmitting subscriber. The location of the receiving subscriber is a little more complicated. Its location can only be tracked using the equipment of the operator to which it is connected. The transmitting subscriber means the one who is being monitored,
Question: is the text of the SMS stored somewhere?
Answer: Yes, the SMS text goes inside the service traffic of the operators and they store it. They don't have to, but they do. The fact that the operators have texts of your sms 5 years ago, they are not recognized. It is impossible to use these texts against you as legal evidence.
Question: Do banks use special equipment, or perhaps they have direct access to operators in order to eavesdrop on their employees?
Answer: Wiretapping of employees without their consent is not legal. You could sign the consent without looking, together with the employment contract. (I saw such an agreement once) Some kind of SPECIAL equipment, I don't think so. There are quite standard building security systems with built-in room monitoring. In addition, the company may have an agreement with the operator according to which all your conversations on work phones can be recorded and tapped. Wiretapping of your personal mobile cannot be legally organized by the company you work for. Except for cases related to the fact that operatively-searched activities are carried out on you, but in this case, the wiretapping is organized not by the company, but by the police.
Question: I use an eared motor-car, I don't understand something, can they also calculate me with an accuracy of a meter?
Answer: Yes, even an earless monkey. If your telephone set operates in the GSM standard, then, regardless of its model, it can be calculated and maintained with the accuracy that the density of the cellular network allows in the place where you are. This does NOT depend on the model of your device.
Question: Please advise how and what device to use so that they do not slip through?
Answer: There are no devices that cannot be "cut through". There are security measures, observing which you can greatly reduce the likelihood that you will be picked up on the telephone. But ours, and not only our SRSOs work mainly focusing on the classical methods of investigation. Computing with your phone is more of an addition to the rest.
Question: ATMs and payment terminals are equipped with SIM cards, which are in the GPRS modem. Is it true that this SIM card successfully burns your phone and you need to lay it out when you come to the ATM or terminal? Is this true for car keys if the signaling hangs with them?
Answer: This is not true. He doesn't fire because he can't. A GPRS modem in an ATM or terminal and a mobile phone in your pocket are 2 devices that do not affect each other at all. They simply do not have functionality that can burn someone. And the signaling from the same opera.
Question: The police can make requests to the OPSOS to provide information - which phones were registered on the network during such a period of time (when the cash-out took place) in this area (ATM location), if there were several episodes and some mobile from the previously detected ones will pop up, then things are bad.
Answer: And here we got to another superstition and its origins. Yes, employees of the SRSO during operational-search activities may request such information. Fortunately, it cannot be proof. But on the other hand, it gives rise to rumors that ATMs are firing mobile phones.
Question: If, throwing out a mobile phone, I leave myself a battery from it, can they burn me on it?
Answer: The battery has no identification, and the serial on it can really be pierced only very theoretically. So no, not true. A battery can only burn you if you put it in a fire. They explode funnily.
Question: There is some video that shows that the telephone set charges the main battery by almost 50% when a special code is entered. That is, the mobile phone has an additional battery that does not discharge even when the mobile phone is completely discharged. That is, with its help, you can turn on your mobile phone, even if you pull out the main battery.
Answer: The circuitry of telephone sets is such that, except in the main battery, there is not enough energy anywhere to turn on the telephone. Not to mention connecting to the GSM network. And the video can be anything. But physics is still working. As for the special code, most likely a code was introduced that misleads the chip that controls the main battery. And thus allows you to finish off the so-called zero reserve from the battery. This leads to the fact that irreversible changes occur in the battery that fatally affect its capacity. Of course, 50% of the charge there will not be typed, but the phone will be able to work for a few minutes from the battery deceived in this way.
Question: There are such things ... Jammers. Are they generally allowed in Russia?
Answer: The use of jamming equipment (radio jamming) in Russia without an appropriate license is illegal. You can say that this is a radio transmitter (which is actually a jammer). But then again, if the device operates outside the permitted frequency and power range, then using it without a license is illegal. So either get a license or you yourself understand.
Chipollino Onion Club
