Search results for cell phone spying | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The New York Police Department (NYPD) has admitted that it used controversial cell phone spying tool " Stingrays " more than 1,000 times since 2008 without warrants. In the documents obtained by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) , the NYPD acknowledged that the department has used Stingrays to intercept personal communications and track the locations of nearby mobile phone users. What are Stingrays? In my previous article , I have explained the scope of Stingrays along with its working, how it cracks encryption and how the police agencies are using these cell phone spying devices equipped in its military surveillance technology DRTBox  in order to: Track people Intercept thousands of cellphone calls Quietly eavesdrop on conversations Eavesdrop on emails and text messages Stingrays are small cell phone surveillance devices that work by imitating cellphone towers, forcing all nearby phones to connect to them and revealing the owners' locat...

Do you know, apart from United States National Security Agency (NSA) , Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and law enforcement, a few advertising companies are also monitoring unsuspecting users' cell phone data with the help of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVS) called Drones. Yes it's True! A Singapore-based advertising firm AdNear , which described itself as "the leading location intelligence platform," is using a number of small drones flying around the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles since early February in order to track Wi-Fi and cellular transmission signals. ADNEAR DRONES TRACKS YOU EVERYWHERE The drones have ability to sniff out device' cellular or wireless Internet signals, which is then identify by device ID. Using this gathered information, the drones track each and every movements and behaviors of individual users. Generally, the reason behind spying on people's cell phone signals is the company's interest to deliver hyper-targe...

Phone tapping in India has become a national concern with a leading operator revealing that at peak there are upto 100 phone tapping requests a day. In India there are ten major operators, at a conservative average of 50 taps a day per operator, there would be 182,000 authorized phone taps each year.  Not a significant number for a country of 500 million cell phones considering the real need to tap corrupt officials, drug dealers, suspected terrorists, mafia and other antisocial elements. To meet this requirement over 2000 such phone tapping equipment was imported by private security agencies, large businesses besides police and government agencies. Since phone taps are authorized only by the government, it is quite probable that some of the equipment in private hands is being used illegally for spying on politicians and businessmen.  There are six ways in which modern phone systems can be illegally tapped for corporate espionage and spying: 1)   Use of Over the Air t...

This Sunday, The Capital , New Delhi plays host to an International The Hackers Conference where blackhat hackers will discuss the challenges of cyber safety with security agencies. Your Smartphone is an always-on and always-connected digital extension of your life which will be used by attackers to covertly steal your sensitive data and spy on you. Mahesh , An Independent Security Researcher and Android Developer/Hacker will demonstrate " Android Spy Agent ". This application allows us to remotely access the entire victim's personal information and even though the confidential data available in the android cell phone. The type of personal information includes the victim's contacts, call logs, messages, browser's history, GPS location and much more information directly available on the victim's cell phone.  Many-a-times we think that is there any way by which we can read the private sms of anyone. So here is the solution Mr. Mahesh will present in...

By now, everyone knows that the major federal agencies and big organisations like FBI, NSA and CIA are spying on you under their massive global surveillance programmes. But here's the Kicker: Your local police might be spying on your activities, too. According to the recent details published by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the police department of Erie County, New York, has used the controversial " Stingray " spying tool nearly 46 times since 2010 without any warrant. Also, the police department of Baltimore used the latest version of the Stingray surveillance device, called Hailstorm , more than 4,000 times in recent years, reports the Baltimore Sun. Late last year, we reported how US Marshals Service gathered data from millions of mobile phones by using a little device, nicknamed " Dirtbox ," in order to track criminals while recording innocent citizens' information. Dirtbox was used in spy airplanes to mimic mobile phone ...

The Anaheim Police Department of California — Home of Disneyland — admitted that they used special Cell Phone surveillance technology, known as DirtBox , mounted on aircraft to track millions of mobile users activities. More than 400 pages of new documents [ PDF ] published Wednesday revealed that Local Police and federal authorities are using, DRTBox , an advanced version of Dirtbox developed by Digital Receiver Technology ( Boeing's  Maryland-based  subsidiary ). DRTBox — Spies in the Sky DRTBox is a military surveillance technology that has capabilities of both Stingray as well as Dirtbox, allowing the police to track, intercept thousands of cellphone calls and quietly eavesdrop on conversations, emails, and text messages. According to the report, DRTBox model is also capable of simultaneously breaking the encryption hundreds of cellphone communications at once, helping Anaheim Police Department track criminals while recording innocent citizens' infor...

Remember StingRays ? The controversial cell phone spying tool , known as " Stingrays " or " IMSI catchers ," has been used by authorities to track criminal suspects most of the times without obtaining court orders. But now, the Federal law agencies will have to be more transparent about their use of Stingrays to spy on cell phones. Thanks to the new policy announced Thursday by the US Department of Justice. For years, local police and federal authorities have used and spent over $350,000 on Stingrays , which essentially mimic mobile phone tower, to track cell phones in countless investigations. What is Stingray? Stingrays , made by the Harris Corporation, has capabilities to access user's unique IDs and phone numbers, track and record locations, and sometimes even intercept Internet traffic and phone calls, send fake texts and install spyware on phones. The authorities used these tracking tools for years to breach people's privacy...

Image Source: Libelium Here's a new danger to your smartphone security: Your mobile device can be hijacked and tracked without your knowledge. Remember Stingrays ? The controversial cell phone spying tool, also known as " IMSI catchers ," has long been used by law enforcement to track and monitor mobile users by mimicking a cellphone tower and tricking their devices to connect to them. Sometimes it even intercepts calls and Internet traffic, sends fake texts, and installs spyware on a victim's phone. Setting up such Stingrays-type surveillance devices , of course, is expensive and needs a lot of efforts, but researchers have now found a new, cheapest way to do the same thing with a simple Wi-Fi hotspot. Yes, Wi-Fi network can capture IMSI numbers from nearby smartphones, allowing almost anyone to track and monitor people wirelessly. IMSI or international mobile subscriber identity is a unique 15-digit number used for authentication of a person when movi...

Your Android Phone is Spying On You, Use custom ROM To Protect your Privacy In this digital age, privacy is more important than ever. Just because you "don't have anything to hide," does not mean that you shouldn't value your privacy or fight for it when companies do things like this, especially with something as personal as your cell phone. An Android developer recently discovered a clandestine application called Carrier IQ built into most smartphones that doesn't just track your location; it secretly records your keystrokes, and there's nothing you can do about it. Is it time to put on a tinfoil hat? That depends on how you feel about privacy. In the nearly 20-minute video clip, Eckhart shows how software developed by mobile-device tracker Carrier IQ logs each keystroke and then sends them off to locations unknown. In addition, when Eckhart tried placing a call, Carrier IQ's software recorded each number before the call was even made. What is Carrier IQ, exactly? ...

We found a high concern for cybersecurity tactics and an increased awareness of the challenges that it brings. This week, we shared lots of stories with our readers, and to help them in identifying the biggest malware threats to their online safety. We are here with the outline of our last week stories, just in case you missed any of them ( ICYMI ). We recommend you read the entire thing ( just click ' Read More ' because there's some valuable advice in there as well ). Here's the list: ➢ How Hackers Can Hack Your Gmail Accounts? Getting smarter in their phishing tactics, hackers have found out ways to fool Gmail's tight security system by bypassing its two-step verification. Hackers are now using text messages and phone-based phishing attacks to circumvent Gmail's security and take over your Gmail accounts. — Read more . ➢ Not Just Windows 10, Windows 7 and 8 Also Spy on You Laughing at controversial data mining and privacy invasion featur...

So far we have heard that using privacy tools by every individual and offering encrypted communication by every company is the only solution to Mass Surveillance conducted by the government and law enforcement authorities. But, Germany says the only solution to guard against surveillance is - Stop using Computers!! Ohh Please!! Is it a joke? No, it does not mean that they are going to completely throw out all of their computer systems, but rather they would use it preposterous. A year ago, when it came to light that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's own personal mobile phone had been spied by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) for years, Surveillance has become a big issue for Germany. Such a big that prominent politicians are seriously considering using manual typewriters for sensitive documents instead of computers. The head of the Germany's NSA Inquiry Committee, Patrick Sensburg said in an interview with the Morgenmagazin TV show on Monday night, th...

The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden , a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton . He's a high school dropout who worked his way into the most secretive computers in U.S. intelligence as a defense contractor and identify himself as the source of leaks about US surveillance programmes - PRISM . He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world's most secretive organisations the NSA. Verax was the name he chose for himself, " truth teller " in Latin. In an interview with The Guardian , Snowden publicly revealed himself as the source of documents outlining a massive effort by the U.S. National Security Agency to track cell phone calls and monitor the e-mail and Internet traffic of virtually all Americans.  Before his leak of U.S. intelligence, Snowden was living in paradise, working for a major U...