Scary.
 

Vic Walter and Krista Kjellman Report:

EDIT: The source for this article was MSNBC.

Cell phone users, beware. The FBI can listen to everything you say, even when the cell phone is turned off.

A recent court ruling in a case against the Genovese crime family revealed that the FBI has the ability from a remote location to activate a cell phone and turn its microphone into a listening device that transmits to an FBI listening post, a method known as a "roving bug." Experts say the only way to defeat it is to remove the cell phone battery.

"The FBI can access cell phones and modify them remotely without ever having to physically handle them," James Atkinson, a counterintelligence security consultant, told ABC News. "Any recently manufactured cell phone has a built-in tracking device, which can allow eavesdroppers to pinpoint someone's location to within just a few feet," he added.


According to the recent court ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, "The device functioned whether the phone was powered on or off, intercepting conversations within its range wherever it happened to be."

The court ruling denied motions by 10 defendants to suppress the conversations obtained by "roving bugs" on the phones of John Ardito, a high-ranking member of the family, and Peter Peluso, an attorney and close associate of Ardito, who later cooperated with the government. The "roving bugs" were approved by a judge after the more conventional bugs planted at specified locations were discovered by members of the crime family, who then started to conduct their business dealings in several additional locations, including more restaurants, cars, a doctor's office and public streets.

"The courts have given law enforcement a blank check for surveillance," Richard Rehbock, attorney for defendant John Ardito, told ABC News.

Judge Kaplan's ruling said otherwise. "While a mobile device makes interception easier and less costly to accomplish than a stationary one, this does not mean that it implicated new or different privacy concerns." He continued, "It simply dispenses with the need for repeated installations and surreptitious entries into buildings. It does not invade zones of privacy that the government could not reach by more conventional means."

But Rehbock disagrees. "Big Brother is upon us...1984 happened a long time ago," he said, referring to the George Orwell futuristic novel "1984," which described a society whose members were closely watched by those in power and was published in 1949.

The FBI maintains the methods used in its investigation of the Genovese family are within the law. "The FBI does not discuss sensitive surveillance techniques other than to emphasize that any electronic surveillance is done pursuant to a court order and ongoing judicial scrutiny," Agent Jim Margolin told ABC News.

I guess we're going to see those old briefcase sized motorola phones again....

This is not really new news and has been around for years now. Its only popped up now that it was released in a court brief recently and now out in the public.

Do I like it that someone COULD listen into my house through my phone? Hell yes, but its also very interesting to know that our intel guys have been listening to the terrorists and bombers through their cell phones at the same time.

Its good and bad and where the line of using it for legit law enforcement and crosses over into the invasion of our personal space is a good question.

I like and fully support it when used for legitimate law enforcement uses, but hate the possibility that it could be use just to snoop on someone, and you know it will happen...

FBI should use this for legitimate purposes only, and by that I mean obtaining dirt needed to imprison crooked politicians in DC. Checks and balances, ya know. ;)

Holy crap. Funny, just a few months back my genius son (in school in Wisconsin) broke his cell phone again (kids...). So, rather than replace his super cool phone with one of the same kind, I tried to re-activate an older one of mine. The cell phone provider said it was illegal to do so because it did not have the GPS feature. Older ones still in use are grandfathered in, but all new ones must, by law, have this feature. He claimed it was so roadside 911 calls, or 911 hang-ups, could be located by police to assist the caller. Yeah right...

This is the first I've read of it.

Big brother, where are you?!

I can't find the article on MSNBC.

I know an engineer at Motorola. I'll ask him...

Can anybody really confirm that it is possible to listen this way? I'd be concerned about individual citizens, industrial espionage, being able to do this more so than the police. We would need to keep all cell phones out of business and technical meetings.

Well, at least the internet is safe.

Seriously, I think that people actually want to be herd.

Steve, that's exactly what I was thinking. What's to keep the boys at Boeing from not bugging an Airbus meeting, or vice-versa? Once the technology is known to exist, someone not in law enforcement will figure out how to use it.

...

I remember reading a few years back when camera phones first came out that Motorola had banned them from their campus...kinda ironic.

Here it is on CNet...

http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

I thought about this, but then considered it a little paranoid:rolleyes:. Mabye people will have to start carrying them in soundproof lead boxes.

I bought a prepaid cell because I didn't want to get stuck with those 3yr/$60 per month/cancellation fee contract. It's expensive sometimes, but only with long conversations and the 800#s can be made from anywhere.

I won't get a land line because ATT gave the NSA customers personal data and there's no way I would want to support that company. ATT also seems to have a virtual monopoly on land lines-- so much for those esteemed anti-trust laws.

People should vote with their dollars(umm, and their votes). There needs to be legislation preventing this kind of stuff with penalties for the offenders.

Electronic infiltration of homes and personal lives will continue, and it won't be by the "invisible government" alone.
What is next? Bluetooth-equipped VCR's so Sony can use better targeting advertisement on you? Don't buy it.

Wow Joe . .. .talk about buggy software...


"Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."

"Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress. The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on Friday.)

Crap, this is ridiculous. My current cellphone has no GPS in it...guess I'm keeping it as long as possible.

Anytime we have a top secret meeting, the cell phones are not allowed in the room. I think we do this so no one in the room can activate their phone.

If this can truly be done remotely without having physical access to the phones, then we would eliminate phones from within our buildings completely.

The US gov monitors electrical spikes to find indoor pot growers. The Israelies do the same for Palestinian printing presses.

A while ago there was talk of using sub-frequencies in the electrical lines as an alternative to the internet.
Computer on? No more intellectual/business property. No more medical privacy, or other for that matter.
That's scary.

What I want to know is am I paying for minutes while the FBI is listening to me talk to my wife about dinner plans?!

If you have a mistress, don't plan on starting up a military development supply company and bidding:)