Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
UPDATE Sept. 8: The stories below reference “cell towers,” but that is not accurate. As experts clarify, these cell phone call interceptors are relatively small, portable, devices.
Original post Sept. 4: A mysterious phony cell call interceptor in the Asheville area is apparently set up to grab phone calls, but nobody appears to know exactly who is listening in.
VentureBeat.com reports that the towers were recently revealed to Popular Science. From VentureBeat:
The towers were revealed by Les Goldsmith to Popular Science last week. He’s CEO of ESD America, which builds the super-secure Cryptophone 500 for clients that need the military-grade security and can handle the phone’s estimated $3,500 price tag.
In the course of testing the phone, Goldsmith’s team discovered the existence of phone cell towers that intercept a call and hand it off to the real network — allowing the tower to listen in or load spyware to the mobile device.
In July, ESD America identified 17 of the towers, but now it has increased that outed inventory to 19. On its Facebook page, ESD America points out that an interceptor “doesn’t necessarily need to be a[n] actual cell tower,” but could simply be the listening/call handling technology sitting somewhere.
Popular Science quotes Goldsmith saying nobody knows who is setting up the interceptors:
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. “Whose interceptor is it? Who are they, that’s listening to calls around military bases? Is it just the U.S. military, or are they foreign governments doing it? The point is: we don’t really know whose they are.”
The Washington Post reports that the Federal Communications Commission wants to know more about the towers, too:
The Federal Communications Commission has established a task force to study reported misuse of surveillance technology that can intercept cellular signals to locate people, monitor their calls and send malicious software to their phones.
The powerful technology — called an IMSI catcher, though also referred to by the trade name “Stingray” — is produced by several major surveillance companies and widely used by police and intelligence services around the world.
The FCC, in response to questions from U.S. Rep. Alan M. Grayson (D-Fla.), plans to study the extent to which criminal gangs and foreign intelligence services are using the devices against Americans. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, in a letter dated this month, said the commission had authority over the surveillance technology and had established a “task force to combat the illicit and unauthorized use of IMSI catchers.”
Anyone have more info on the Asheville tower?
Today on Twitter the CEO & Co-founder of ESD America, Les Goldsmith, confirmed that the tower in question is indeed located in Asheville.
The user was definitely in Asheville. Many of our users keep the phone on the firewall screen.
https://twitter.com/LesatESD/status/508261899562405888
Yes, but he also says:
“These are not “towers” they are gsm interceptors. Which are portable.”
You all keep talking about taking down a tower, or who owns the tower, etc.
The company that reported this has said that 1) the equipment for doing this does not require a tower, and could be in a roving van for all we know. and 2) even if they do know specifically where these receivers are, they will not report it, in case it’s some legitimate law enforcement operation.
Unless there new reporting, that’s the last word I’ve heard on ‘where’ these things are.
I believe we have one of these in Big Sandy Mush..a tower was put up well over a year ago..but does not appear to belong to the “usual” suspects..
While the report is disconcerting, it also happens to be coming directly from the manufacturer of a $3500 super secure phone. The company, ESD America, is not releasing the specific locations of these mystery cell towers. I think the report is more of a commercial for their high dollar phone than anything else.
Also, these mystery towers are only intercepting GSM phones, so if you are on Verizon or Sprint you will not have to worry about these particular ones. AT&T and T-Mobile on the otherhand…
Pleas, please do some real reporting – with the regulation of radio and radio emissions, ALL emitters of RDF (which cell towers, as a function of communication between cell phones and towers must perform).
So, off the top of my head, here are the ways to find out who owns, runs, operates the towers:
Someone owns the land, there are county records for ownership, public record
In most areas, there are zoning laws for cell towers, information is kept, updated and is public record
Someone pays the power bill to run these towers.
Someone designed these towers, someone built these towers, someone maintains these towers; all this is discoverable, with some effort.
A little good reporting and research will tell you much of what you want to know.
A guess about these towers? One they are owned by the US government; two, this is an advertisement for the “revealed” end around for security, so we need to buy the gadget to shield us from these evil towers – this is the most likely scenario.
I’ve got a couple of sawzalls. Let’s go fix the problem.
Is there evidence that these are successfully being used in the real world to monitor large numbers of peoples’ phone calls? It’s also worth noting that since it’s GSM, companies like ATT would be vulnerable, while Verizon (CDMA) would not.
Seems like taking one apart would be a great way to get the attention of the installers….just saying.
Somebody tear it down and see who sues you.
I welcome any new towers in Asheville if it improves my cell coverage. Do you hear me AT&T!
From the ESD America FB page:
“Some media outlets have been wrongly reporting all these interceptors are near military bases. This is not correct. The majority are in commercial areas.”
And:
“Hi, sorry we are not giving out specific locations just vicinity. If their was a legitimate police operation going on we woukd not want to compromise. Additionally customers are not specific enough for more detail.”
Something like this that is so small and portable can be anyone and anywhere. Could be a U.S. Government Conspiracy with the Patriot act, or it could be Walmart doing some Marketing research (a jest, but a corporate reality).
My end point is, could be anyone, and the technology will just get smaller and more portable to a point that a cell phone size ‘gadget’ can intercept all the cellular activity within 100 miles (probably already exists)
Just assume someone’s listening, and wonder wtf they are getting out of my conversation, other than I need to get milk on the way home.
There’s a good article at Wired.com which describes IMSI catchers, Stingrays & GSM interceptors. They are often so small and portable they can be carried in a van or on foot. There is concern that law enforcement agencies are using these powerful surveillance tools without warrants.
I’d be interested to know which local law enforcement agencies are listening to our calls, viewing our data, etc.. Using one without a warrant specific to a particular phone would be illegal. It’s “wiretapping.”
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/cryptophone-firewall-identifies-rogue-cell-towers/
What’s the location of the tower.