[Infowarrior] - FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

Fri Dec 1 18:44:31 EST 2006

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/FBI+taps+cell+phone+mic+as+eavesdropping+tool/2100-1029_
3-6140191.html

Story last modified Fri Dec 01 15:41:12 PST 2006

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance
in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone
and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S.
Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York
organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques
such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his
attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby
conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the
Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.

The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week
by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was
legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit
eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell
phone.

Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether
the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down
without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up
when turned off if an alarm is set.

While the Genovese crime family prosecution appears to be the first time a
remote-eavesdropping mechanism has been used in a criminal case, the
technique has been discussed in security circles for years.

The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular
telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of
listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the
Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a
piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which
will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."

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.)

"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to
counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which
is not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said.
Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from
their cell phones, he added.

FBI's physical bugs discovered

The FBI's Joint Organized Crime Task Force, which includes members of the
New York police department, had little luck with conventional surveillance
of the Genovese family. They did have a confidential source who reported the
suspects met at restaurants including Brunello Trattoria in New Rochelle,
N.Y., which the FBI then bugged.

But in July 2003, Ardito and his crew discovered bugs in three restaurants,
and the FBI quietly removed the rest. Conversations recounted in FBI
affidavits show the men were also highly suspicious of being tailed by
police and avoided conversations on cell phones whenever possible.

That led the FBI to resort to "roving bugs," first of Ardito's Nextel
handset and then of Peluso's. U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones approved
them in a series of orders in 2003 and 2004, and said she expected to "be
advised of the locations" of the suspects when their conversations were
recorded.

Details of how the Nextel bugs worked are sketchy. Court documents,
including an affidavit (p1) and (p2) prepared by Assistant U.S. Attorney
Jonathan Kolodner in September 2003, refer to them as a "listening device
placed in the cellular telephone." That phrase could refer to software or
hardware.

One private investigator interviewed by CNET News.com, Skipp Porteous of
Sherlock Investigations in New York, said he believed the FBI planted a
physical bug somewhere in the Nextel handset and did not remotely activate
the microphone.

"They had to have physical possession of the phone to do it," Porteous said.
"There are several ways that they could have gotten physical possession.
Then they monitored the bug from fairly near by."

But other experts thought microphone activation is the more likely scenario,
mostly because the battery in a tiny bug would not have lasted a year and
because court documents say the bug works anywhere "within the United
States"--in other words, outside the range of a nearby FBI agent armed with
a radio receiver.

In addition, a paranoid Mafioso likely would be suspicious of any ploy to
get him to hand over a cell phone so a bug could be planted. And Kolodner's
affidavit seeking a court order lists Ardito's phone number, his 15-digit
International Mobile Subscriber Identifier, and lists Nextel Communications
as the service provider, all of which would be unnecessary if a physical bug
were being planted.

A BBC article from 2004 reported that intelligence agencies routinely employ
the remote-activiation method. "A mobile sitting on the desk of a politician
or businessman can act as a powerful, undetectable bug," the article said,
"enabling them to be activated at a later date to pick up sounds even when
the receiver is down."

For its part, Nextel said through spokesman Travis Sowders: "We're not aware
of this investigation, and we weren't asked to participate."

Other mobile providers were reluctant to talk about this kind of
surveillance. Verizon Wireless said only that it "works closely with law
enforcement and public safety officials. When presented with legally
authorized orders, we assist law enforcement in every way possible."

A Motorola representative said that "your best source in this case would be
the FBI itself." Cingular, T-Mobile, and the CTIA trade association did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.