@Zil - Well said. Thanks for clarifying. Yes, nothing is 100% secure. There will always be a zero day, something worth stealing, and someone with too much time/processing power on their hands.
Zil said:
If we can't live with this we need to elect representatives to put in place the necessary controls.
That's one way. Another is the
Trust No One (TNO) approach.
Open source software and strong, properly implemented encryption can go a long way in assuring privacy even for regular folks like us.
Open source is great because anyone can audit the code for vulnerabilities. Strong encryption is great because it can protect your data in a way that, while not perfect, can make it cost prohibitive to break. It reminds me of that quote, “You don't have to outrun the bear, just the guy next to you.”
One of the best things about TNO is that it won't cost you $3,500. In fact, it doesn't have to cost anything.
Free software and
resources are available for anyone who cares about their privacy. All it takes is a willingness to sacrifice a measure of convenience for a measure of security.
@Prisoner Of Knowledge – If you're interested in hardening your information security, I'd recommend the
CryptoParty Handbook as a good place to start. I like the book because you don't need prior experience to understand it; you can download it for free as a pdf, mobi, epub, or text file; and it's still an active, grassroots project.
I don't know how to code or do anything fancy, but I do what I can to protect my data. And it's not even really about my data (I'm not that interesting). To me, it's more about being able to speak your mind without feeling creeped out about whether or not someone's listening. Like LeeRevell just pointed out, all the things are tapped. That's why we must
encrypt all the things!
Take this post as an example. If I worried about how
some rampant gov't agency with a mean Jingoistic streak and no accountability might respond to what I was typing, I'd be influenced toward apathy instead of action. Without privacy, anyone can fall victim to a
chilling effect. This effectively neuters public discourse.
*dismounts soap box*
Ok, back to the mystery towers. Cyndi nailed it. This is a known technology, and they're not actually towers. They're suitcase sized base stations. You can read more about them
here and
here. If you have the right credentials, it looks like you can even buy em
here.
Not a LEO but still wanna tap that phone? Security researchers at last year's Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas, “detailed their ability to use a Verizon signal-boosting device, a $250 consumer unit called a femtocell, to secretly intercept voice calls, data, and SMS text messages of any handset that connects to the device.”.
I think the dropping down to 2G thing the msn article mentioned is part of an exploit that attacks the
“the second operating system hiding in every mobile phone.”
According to
OSNews managing editor, Thom Holwerda, “Every smartphone or other device with mobile communications capability (e.g. 3G or LTE) actually runs not one, but two operating systems. Aside from the operating system that we as end-users see (Android, iOS, PalmOS), it also runs a small operating system that manages everything related to radio."
But it's not all bad. I think I saw someone mention jailbreaking on this forum earlier... I'm also a fan. Well, I hear both
rooting and jailbreaking are made possible by this kind of exploit on the baseband processor. So there's that.
TL;DR – TNO FTW! Don't give up.
Encrypt all the things! I'm happy to help anyone here lock down their devices insofar as I can, which isn't much, but it's better than doing nothing.
