Signs of sophisticated cellphone spying found near White House, U.S. officials say

[DonViejo]

By Craig Timberg
June 1 at 10:34 AM

A federal study found signs that surveillance devices for intercepting cellphone calls and texts were operating near the White House and other sensitive locations in the Washington area last year.

A Department of Homeland Security program discovered evidence of the surveillance devices, called IMSI catchers, as part of federal testing last year, according to a letter from DHS to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on May 22. The letter didn't specify what entity operated the devices and left open the possibility that there could be alternative explanations for the suspicious cellular signals collected by the federal testing program last year.

The discovery bolsters years of independent research suggesting that foreign intelligence agencies use sophisticated interception technology to spy on officials working within the hub of federal power in the nation’s capital. Experts in surveillance technology say that IMSI catchers — sometimes known by one popular brand name, StingRay — are a standard part of the tool kit for many foreign intelligence services, including for such geopolitical rivals as Russia and China. A DHS spokesman confirmed the contents of the letter to Wyden but declined further comment.

"This admission from DHS bolsters my concern about stingrays and other spying devices being used to spy on Americans’ phones," Wyden said in a statement on Thursday. "Given the reports of rogue spying devices being identified near the White House and other government facilities, I fear that foreign intelligence services could target the president and other senior officials."

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/06/01/signs-of-sophisticated-cell-phone-spying-found-near-white-house-say-u-s-officials/?utm_term=.0b8ad8b889e0

[Corgigal]

1. American phones?

Just the dumbass unclassified Presidents phone. The answer, is of course they are.

Everyone on DU knew it.

[IllinoisBirdWatcher]

2. and who in government uses a non-secure cell phone?? Hmmm. eom

[dalton99a]

3. It is intentional

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. It needs to repeated often: Trump purposely uses unsecured phones despite knowing better & told

He has been told multiple times it is dangerous. He doesn't care because it would inconvenience him to use secured phones.

[Initech]

5. This couldn't be more obvious than if Trump had a "spy on me" sign taped to his back.

[Yonnie3]

6. Interesting ...

I worked many gigs in the general area of the White House. I believe my calls and texts would likely have bored an eavesdropper to tears.

As an aside, we noted many attempts to connect to our WiFi router which is used to remote control audio mixing consoles, especially when we were on top of the Hay-Adams Hotel. This was many rapid attempts from a couple of devices, so this was not some folks looking for free internet. We saw another WiFi connection became available with the same name as ours. We were not fooled. All this went away within an hour. We learned to power up that router early.

Anyone who has money can set up all sorts of spy devices. We thought it was the Secret Service, but who knows.