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Content type: Examples
Cellebrite, which provides technology to unlock phones and access their data, asks its government agency customers to keep both its technology and the fact that they used it secret, a leaked company training video shows. Such a request violates the rights of the public to expect that authorities are transparent when asking judges to authorise searches. In the video, the company employee claims that disclosure could hinder law enforcement and help criminals.https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/19/…
Content type: Explainer
What is hacking?
Hacking refers to finding vulnerabilities in electronic systems, either to report and repair them, or to exploit them.
Hacking can help to identify and fix security flaws in devices, networks and services that millions of people may use. But it can also be used to access our devices, collect information about us, and manipulate us and our devices in other ways.
Hacking comprises a range of ever-evolving techniques. It can be done remotely, but it can also include physical…
Content type: Explainer
What is an IMSI catcher?
‘IMSI’ stands for ‘international mobile subscriber identity’, a number unique to your SIM card. IMSI catchers are also known as ‘Stingrays’.
An ‘IMSI catcher’ is a device that locates and then tracks all mobile phones that are connected to a phone network in its vicinity, by ‘catching’ the unique IMSI number.
It does this by pretending to be a mobile phone tower, tricking mobile phones nearby to connect to it, enabling it to then intercept the data from that phone…
Content type: Report
Privacy International has released a report summarising the result of its research into the databases and surveillance tools used by authorities across the UK’s borders, immigration, and citizenship system.
The report uses procurement, contractual, and other open-source data and aims to inform the work of civil society organisations and increase understanding of a vast yet highly opaque system upon which millions of people rely.
It also describes and maps…
Content type: Examples
The controversial Israeli spyware company NSO Group's US arm, Westbridge, has been trying to pitch its phone hacking software to US law enforcement agencies such as the San Diego Police Department, particularly a tool called "Phantom", which the complany claims can overcome encryption, track geolocation, withstand a factory reset, monitor apps and voice and VOIP calls, and collect passwords.
Writer: Joseph Cox
Publication: Vice
Content type: Examples
In June 2016, National Security Agency deputy director Richard Ledgett told a conference on military technology conference that the agency was researching whether internet-connected biomedical devices such as pacemakers could be used to collect foreign intelligence. Ledgett identified the complexity of the Internet of Things as both a security nightmare and an opportunity for signals intelligence. However, the NSA prioritises its resources by focusing solely on technology used by its opponents…
Content type: Examples
In 2015, the Canadian Department of National Defence issued a procurement request for a contractor who could find "vulnerabilities and security measures" in a 2015 pick-up truck whose model and make were not specified and "develop and demonstrate exploits" for the military. The contractor was to find as many exploits as possible by analysing every part of the truck, demonstrate that the hacks could actually hurt someone or enable an attacker to gather information, and deliver explicit source…
Content type: Examples
In 2017, an anonymous whistleblower sent a letter to Green party peer Jenny Jones alleging that a secretive Scotland Yard unit was illegally monitoring the private emails of campaigners and journalists. The letter included a list of ten people and the passwords to their email accounts and claimed the police were using an India-based operation that did the work of hacking emails, shredding documents, and using sex as a method of infiltration. Jones's background includes a decade on the…