Can the NSA Remotely Turn On Mobile Phones?

[Guest]

Edward Snowden says the NSA can remotely turn on unpowered phones, but some experts are skeptical. Here's why, and how it might work.

Can the NSA Remotely Turn On Mobile Phones? : Read more

 

[InvalidError]

There is an easy way to check if the baseband is really off: check the voltage regulator feeding it. If the regulator output is off or external filter caps for their integrated regulator read under 0.4V, you know with 100% certainty that the baseband is off at the time of measurement.

Another possibility would be to use a high-speed scope to analyze the noise on supply rails and detect unexpected activity: if the baseband chip is capturing and analyzing signals, the activity should generate noise on supply rails as the baseband processes packets to detect something addressed to it. Every packet received should have a corresponding noise burst on the supply rail that may stop just after packet headers.

 

[DalaiLame]

They can do it while the media will point the finger at China, as usual.

 

[neon neophyte]

so you really do have to completely remove the battery

just watch, theyre going to start making phones with a tiny backup battery soldered into the mainboard.

 

[koga73]

Perhaps everyone is overthinking this. Keep it simple. Hacking the baseband may be possible but there may be another way. A microphone is essentially a reverse speaker. Even if the phone is off the microphone is still going to generate electromagnetic fields and electrical signals. Perhaps the NSA simply found a way to monitor these changes produced by the microphone whether the device is on or off.

 

[dstarr3]

Since when did everyone in the country start wearing tin foil hats? If you're really that concerned about privacy, throw your cell phone and computer in a river, move out to a log cabin in the middle of Montana and never speak a word out loud again. I mean, the NSA will still be spying on you, but at least I won't have to hear about it.

 

[fimbulvinter]

Since it was proven with 100% certainty that everyone is being watched. You were the type before the revelations that would accuse anyone of making such a claim as a "tinfoil hat" wearer, but somehow all along knew this to be fact after it became fact.

 

[Esteban Thirion Mouvet]

I don’t even understand why we ask this question, because everyone knows the answer, is not it?

Of course the NSA can open mobile phones. It says that the USA is the land of freedom, but I think it is also a country where one is the most watched. There is often scandals over the NSA spying agency or other U.S. security. I think we know that unfortunately the visible part of the iceberg. Information now go faster and faster and we don’t know too much control. In addition, we don’t know where they are going.

I find the name of security, we allow too many things.

 

[nocona_xeon]

After reading, I was thinking of a better and much cheaper solution but I'm unsure if it would work. I believe that the tiny holes in your microwave oven's glass are that size because the microwave wavelength cannot shoot through them (the waves are too big). Is that correct? Therefore, why doesn't someone just fabricate some sort of "carrying case" that snugly contains your cell/smartphone and blocks ALL electromagnetism from entering and exiting? Better yet, if the case could have a clear window pane (somehow), perhaps its apps that don't require wireless could still be used while your phone is still absent from the network? My two bits. The inability for me to completely disable my cell/smartphone is unacceptable. As in Get Smart, I want my Cone of Silence, haha.

 

[truerock]

OMG... I see this all the time. Tech nerds so deep in the issue that they are completely out of touch with normal people. Snowden was probably just referring to "off" as 99% of the worlds population does - when the phone is put to "sleep". Many (if not most) users do not know the difference between sleep-mode and power-down.

 

[Zeroplanetz]

And yet more and more smartphones are being made to where you cannot remove the battery. Hmmmm.

 

[hythos]

so you really do have to completely remove the battery

just watch, theyre going to start making phones with a tiny backup battery soldered into the mainboard.

LOL "start". I'd expect that even when a phone is "out of power" - because it has *just enough* power to tell you that it is (IE, iphones), there's still plenty left in "emergency reserves" - that which they need to maintain communication with the device, at least for a while.
Additionally, wasn't there a recent "Government Mandate" passed that stated all new phones after xx year will be required to allow for a remote lock and/or wipe?

 

[Jeffrey Barone]

Lol who turns their cell off any way, they hack them when you turn them on. land line and telegrams aren't any better lol.

 

[Jeffrey Barone]

Lol who turns their cell off any way, they hack them when you turn them on. land line and telegrams aren't any better lol.

 

[Jeffrey Barone]

Lol who turns their cell off any way, they hack them when you turn them on. land line and telegrams aren't any better lol.

 

[bobbintb]

After reading, I was thinking of a better and much cheaper solution but I'm unsure if it would work. I believe that the tiny holes in your microwave oven's glass are that size because the microwave wavelength cannot shoot through them (the waves are too big). Is that correct? Therefore, why doesn't someone just fabricate some sort of "carrying case" that snugly contains your cell/smartphone and blocks ALL electromagnetism from entering and exiting? Better yet, if the case could have a clear window pane (somehow), perhaps its apps that don't require wireless could still be used while your phone is still absent from the network? My two bits. The inability for me to completely disable my cell/smartphone is unacceptable. As in Get Smart, I want my Cone of Silence, haha.

They already have those and have had them for quite some time. Law enforcement and the military uses them to block out any sort of "kill" signal that might be sent to a phone to wipe data.

 

[g1a1m1e1s]

Let's assume for a moment "they" have obtained the cryptografic key of the SIM card from the network operator. Couldn't they simply upload and run some java apps on that card to do... just about anything they wish?