Exposed: A Secret Catalogue of
Government Gear for Spying on Your Cellphone
The
Intercept obtained the catalogue from a source within the intelligence
community concerned about the militarization of domestic law enforcement.
The
Intercept has obtained a secret, internal U.S. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices
used by the military and by intelligence agencies. The document, thick with
previously undisclosed information, also offers rare insight into the
spying capabilities of federal law enforcement and local police inside the
United States.
The
catalogue includes details on the Stingray, a well-known brand of surveillance
gear, as well as Boeing “dirt boxes” and dozens of more obscure devices that
can be mounted on vehicles, drones, and piloted aircraft.
Some are designed to be used at static locations, while others can be discreetly carried by an individual. They have names like Cyberhawk, Yellowstone, Blackfin, Maximus, Cyclone, and Spartacus.
Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another was developed for a special forces requirement. Nearly a third of the entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in public before.
Some are designed to be used at static locations, while others can be discreetly carried by an individual. They have names like Cyberhawk, Yellowstone, Blackfin, Maximus, Cyclone, and Spartacus.
Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another was developed for a special forces requirement. Nearly a third of the entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in public before.
The
Intercept obtained the catalogue from a source within the intelligence
community concerned about the militarization of domestic law enforcement. (The
original is here.)
A
few of the devices can house a “target list” of as many as 10,000 unique phone
identifiers. Most can be used to geolocate people, but the documents indicate
that some have more advanced capabilities, like eavesdropping on calls and
spying on SMS messages.
Two systems, apparently designed for use on captured phones, are touted as having the ability to extract media files, address books, and notes, and one can retrieve deleted text messages.
Two systems, apparently designed for use on captured phones, are touted as having the ability to extract media files, address books, and notes, and one can retrieve deleted text messages.
Above
all, the catalogue represents a trove of details on surveillance devices
developed for military and intelligence purposes but increasingly used by law
enforcement agencies to spy on people and convict them of crimes.
The mass shooting earlier this month in San Bernardino, California, which President Barack Obama has called “an act of terrorism,” prompted calls for state and local police forces to beef up their counterterrorism capabilities, a process that has historically involved adapting military technologies to civilian use.
Meanwhile, civil liberties advocates and others are increasingly alarmed about how cellphone surveillance devices are used domestically and have called for a more open and informed debate about the trade-off between security and privacy — despite a virtual blackout by the federal government on any information about the specific capabilities of the gear.
The mass shooting earlier this month in San Bernardino, California, which President Barack Obama has called “an act of terrorism,” prompted calls for state and local police forces to beef up their counterterrorism capabilities, a process that has historically involved adapting military technologies to civilian use.
Meanwhile, civil liberties advocates and others are increasingly alarmed about how cellphone surveillance devices are used domestically and have called for a more open and informed debate about the trade-off between security and privacy — despite a virtual blackout by the federal government on any information about the specific capabilities of the gear.
“We’ve
seen a trend in the years since 9/11 to bring sophisticated surveillance
technologies that were originally designed for military use — like Stingrays or
drones or biometrics — back home to the United States,” said Jennifer Lynch, a
senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has waged a
legal battle challenging the use of cellphone surveillance
devices domestically.
“But using these technologies for domestic law enforcement purposes raises a host of issues that are different from a military context.”
“But using these technologies for domestic law enforcement purposes raises a host of issues that are different from a military context.”
Read
the full article at The Intercept