Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • December 26, 2023 10:00 AM

I forgot to mention why Larry Patton McDonald was such a National Security concern, and why some thought he was the sole reason the Soviet Union shot down the plane, to in effect assasinate him.

Few remember him now, but he is an object lesson in “oddity”, some say that even though he was a doctor and a Democrat he was more extream right than any other US Representative of the time or since.

How much you do or do not believe, the story with pushing of dangerous drugs, gun running and private intelligence organisations, it makes quite interesting reading,

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/12/02/larry-mcdonald-communists-deep-state-222726/

Clive Robinson • December 27, 2023 4:31 PM

@ lurker, ALL,

Re : Mobile as Land Line.

“So you get a new phone…”

That as they say,

“Is your first mistake.”

It’s a not unreasonable assumption to think that with each upgrade of software the phone OS and Apps are updated with the most modern of sneaky tricks to get PPI, on top of all those earlier sneaky tricks.

This is not going to change untill the corporate seniors are actually penalised with 20 plus year jail sentances without parole.

As others have noted fines are not a punishment, they are just seen as an everyday,

“Cost of doing business well.”

In fact some investors won’t look at a company that is not fighting against a fine or five. Because no fines means the company is not trying hard enough to make “shareholder value”.

It’s the same argument as leaving “money on the table” or “cash on the floor” or similar. Put simply if every deal a company makes is a success then investors will see it as not taking enough risk thus playing it safe on the “low road”. It’s a case of –has oft been said before– of,

“Go BIG! Or go home…”

Ie do the GWB cowboy walk etc etc.

So you have to assume no matter what you do your “Mobile Phone” will in some way or another,

“Rat you out to a bunch of profit mongers with zero ethics or empathy, and very probable significant criminal inclinations.”

So what do you do?

As I’ve mentioned before you don’t carry it around with you when it’s on. You put ir on charge in your office desk or in the hall or kitchen etc.

Treat it like a “land line” with a WiFi router.

Further put an EM Radiation “Crystal/diode RF envelope Detector” next to it and “log it’s behaviour”.

But most importantly develop “habits” where you turn the phone off or leave it some place very regularly.

So turn it off when you leave home –it is after all a dangerous distraction whilst traveling– turn it on only when you get inside work, and put it in your desk draw on vibrate and voice mail or divert to your work phone VM. Leave it there at lunch etc. Turn it off when you leave the office, and turn ir back on when back home.

By “turn off” I realy do not mean via the “soft button” I mean pull the power and put it in a working Faraday bag, preferably with one of those micro sized “phone/GPS jammers”[1]. That way the mobile has no signal to receive and log in it’s memory, that might later be read out.

The thing is you have to make “The hard Choice” is your mobile to be a “phone” or some kind of “Personal Assistant” come “Games/entertainment toy”?

If you chose wrong, or don’t take the right precautions then it very definitely by spting on you 24×365.

And remember that Law Enforcment caution of “Anything you say or do may be used against you” well it needs an update with “have said or done” as they can go back months or years looking for some innocent thing to persuade a jury to hang you with[3].

[1] A lot of people will tell you that phone and GPS jammers are “illegal”, actually that is so over simplified and generalised it is effectively not true. Whilst it is unlawfull to “intentionally” “jam or interfere with a service used by others”, provided the signal does not reach “others” equipment it’s not unlawful (because if it was then no “Consumer Electronics”, especially ICT kit would be legal to use). A low power jammer with the antenna replaced by a “dummy load” of long legged resistor, is not a jammer but a “swept signal generator”[2] inside a screaning Faraday box/bag should not radiate outside of the bag above the legal limit / Mask (one of which is -43dbm in US). The fact your phone is in the box/bag and being jammed is irrelevant as you are not an “other” user.

[2] You don’t actually need a “jammer” a micro “Vector Network Analyser”(VNA) or tracking “Spectrum Analyser”(SA) will produce a “sweep signal”. They are both pieces of freely available “Test equipment” for which there are no rules other than taking steps to avoid “intentional” interferance or radiation beyond the test environment. In my “EMC Test Cell” (a Faraday cage with internal radiating transmission line) I use the tracking output of an SA to drive a chain of ultra linear amplifiers to get +50dbm (100W) to test receivers for desense and +60dbm (1kW) for other equipment for susceptibility in high power TX environments (think up the top of a VHF Broadcast tower etc).

[3] If you don’t believe this look at the legislation of the large number of US states that have come out with post roe-v-wade (Dobbs-v-Jackson) nullification legislation that can be used as the first step to find women and drag them into court to be found guilty of the equivalent of murder. Which soon will be applied for using the birth control pill (see the definitions used for start of life –something I warned would happen–)…