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"Fake" Cell Towers (Was Is this even possible?)


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http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/mysterious-phony-cell-towers-could-be-intercepting-your-calls

 

 

Other than at the South Point Casino, does anyone know where these towers are located more specifically than the map they provide?

 

I saw references to GSM. Is it only for GSM networks where this is an issue?

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http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/mysterious-phony-cell-towers-could-be-intercepting-your-calls

 

 

Other than at the South Point Casino, does anyone know where these towers are located more specifically than the map they provide?

 

I saw references to GSM. Is it only for GSM networks where this is an issue?

I was wondering the same thing. I do seem to recall reading articles some time back detailing how GSM was far more vulnerable than CDMA.

 

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

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A fellow chemist here at work who is also responsible for our IT just came over to me and showed me an MSN article on this same thing.  It was quoted from Popular Science.  Scarey stuff! 

 

http://money.msn.com/investing/post--mysterious-fake-cellphone-towers-found-across-us

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The fake towers are gsm. Kind of hard replicating the handshaking going on in cdma between phone and the system. Which is why no one can bring a Sprint phone on Verizon and vice/versa. Not without doing some major work in the phones.

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There were talks about doing exactly this at Defcon a few years ago. They described all the details on how it can be done, why someone would do it, and offered recommendations to the GSM carriers on how to mitigate it. Essentially it's "stop using GSM and move to LTE ASAP"

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here are a bunch more articles:

Some of this is just PR for the company selling a so-called "cryptophone," but I'm sure some of the issues being raised are also real. My understanding is that IMSI Catchers are GSM specific, so they might not target Sprint, but with Verizon being the biggest network in the country, I'm sure there's a CDMA equivalent.

 

Given that many of you guys are real experts in this area, my questions are:

  • Do the techniques described pass the smell test of technical feasibility?
  • Have you ever noticed anything which leads you to believe similar techniques are being used on the Sprint network?
  • Is this something you're worried about?
  • Anything you can do to avoid or deter being caught up in this kind of tracking/surveillance?
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  • 3 months later...

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