“To show what the CryptoPhone can do that less expensive competitors cannot, [Les Goldsmith, CEO of ESD America, maker of CryptoPhone] points me to a map that he and his customers have created, indicating 17 different phony cell towers known as ‘interceptors,’ detected by the CryptoPhone 500 around the United States during the month of July alone,” Andrew Rosenblum reports for Popular Science. “Interceptors look to a typical phone like an ordinary tower. Once the phone connects with the interceptor, a variety of ‘over-the-air’ attacks become possible, from eavesdropping on calls and texts to pushing spyware to the device.”
“‘Interceptor use in the U.S. is much higher than people had anticipated,’ Goldsmith says. ‘One of our customers took a road trip from Florida to North Carolina and he found 8 different interceptors on that trip. We even found one at South Point Casino in Las Vegas,'” Rosenblum reports. “Who is running these interceptors and what are they doing with the calls? Goldsmith says we can’t be sure, but he has his suspicions.’What we find suspicious is that a lot of these interceptors are right on top of U.S. military bases. So we begin to wonder – are some of them U.S. government interceptors? Or are some of them Chinese interceptors?’ says Goldsmith.”
“Some interceptors are limited, only able to passively listen to either outgoing or incoming calls. But full-featured devices like the VME Dominator, available only to government agencies, can not only capture calls and texts, but even actively control the phone, sending out spoof texts, for example. Edward Snowden revealed that the N.S.A. is capable of an over-the-air attack that tells the phone to fake a shut-down while leaving the microphone running, turning the seemingly deactivated phone into a bug,” Rosenblum reports. “And various ethical hackers have demonstrated DIY interceptor projects, using a software programmable radio and the open-source base station software package OpenBTS – this creates a basic interceptor for less than $3,000. On August 11, the F.C.C. announced an investigation into the use of interceptors against Americans by foreign intelligence services and criminal gangs.”
Read more in the full article here.