Can cell phones be bugged? If so, how?
You can either pick the signal out of the air, or intercept it as it passes through one of the data routing centres it travels through.
I’m not sure whether it’s possible to eavesdrop on digital phones (isn’t it encrypted?)
Anyway, if access to the physical device is possible, then a bug can be installed inside it; this could transmit sounds in close proxomity to the phone even when no call is being made.
Yes, the old government here is going through a row about bugging of mobile phones. The Czech Republic has some pretty lax laws regarding the tapping of mobile phones. There were some estimates that around 10,000 people had their phones bugged - about 1% of the population.
The old style analog cell phones were notoriously insecure. You just needed a receiving device tuned to the right frequency.
Now with digital phones there is a lot more involved than just picking the signal out of the air. Supposedly the signal is much harder to decode.
Before it was illegal to listen, I heard several cellphone conversations - well, one side of them - just by tuning my radio in.
There used to be a principle in communications law that if somebody sent radio waves through you, you were allowed to pay attention. This meant that cellphones were not private. Cellphone companies got a law passed to make listening illegal, so cellphone users can send their transmissions through you but you’re not allowed to notice.
It kinda depends on the resources you have available…
I’m not sure there’s any home-depot capture devices that will pick up and decode digital cellphone data, but the US govt has some capability.
Well, the obvious method would be for the cellphone provider to just record the traffic they are carrying to/from you, which I believe is the preferred method for The Man to keep an ear on you.
Alternatively you can slip a small transmitter into the phone, or just clone the sim card.
They do it all the time in The Wire.
About 20 years ago a pair of Washington Post reporters discovered they could eavesdrop on cell phone conversations by using their TV sets.
You need a pre-1985 set that can tune to the (no longer used) UHF channels 80 through 83. After those frequencies were decommissioned for TV use they were reallocated to cell phones.
I can’t pick up cell phone conversations but my wireless headphones work on 900 mHz and on several occasions I have picked up my neighbours’ cordless phone conversations. As a rule of thumb, if you’re broadcasting, it’s not secure.
In my reading of spy-related fiction and non-fiction, a distinction is usually made between tapping and bugging. Although the OP asked about bugging, all the responses have been about tapping.
“Tapping” a phone line or other communication channel typically involves intercepting the channel’s regular signal, whether by physically splicing into the telephone wire or picking up the radio signal the device transmits as part of its normal operation. This can be done with or without the knowledge and consent of the owners of the communication channel (i.e. the telephone company), although having their consent obviously makes tapping simpler and more reliable, and all but eliminates the possibility of detection by the target. [Checks forum and decides not to make snide comment about the current administration.]
“Bugging” is creating a separate, covert communication channel, either by placing a microphone (hard-wired or wireless) in the target room or inside the target device. It’s even possible to bug a room by bouncing a laser off a window, and picking up the vibrations of the glass created by sounds in the room.
Ordinary desk telephones have plenty of internal empty space in which a miniature mike and transmitter can be placed. To a lesser extent, so do cordless home phones. But cell phones have become so small that I would be surprised if it’s possible to open them up and put a bug inside. (I am not an engineer, so I could be wrong about this.) It’s certainly not easy.
Keep in mind that if you are truly bugging (as opposed to tapping) the phone, you need a mike, transmitter, and power source that operate separately from the phone’s own mike, transmitter, and power source. It may be possible to co-opt one or more of the phone’s components to serve your covert purposes, but you run the risk of raising suspicions if, for example, battery life is suddenly reduced or the phone starts behaving strangely.
Another consideration is that the internal workings of ordinary corded telephones are relatively simple and similar from unit to unit. Covertly opening one up and installing a bug is generally a matter of connecting a couple of wires to easily identified parts of the phone. It can generally be done with a few minutes of access to the device, using standardized hardware. The internals of cell phones are all circuit boards and vary considerably between models, so bugs probably would have to be customized for specific models.
I would guess that if it is possible to bug (as opposed to tap) a modern cell phone, it would take an extremely high level of technical sophistication. I wouldn’t expect it to be something that even a dedicated hobbyist could do on his own, unlike bugging (or tapping) ordinary wired phones, which is child’s play.
Of course, if the OP merely said “bugged” when he meant “tapped,” well…never mind.
I know they set up wiretaps on Scott Peterson’s phone:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=News&id=2050941
I seem to recall hearing a clip in which Peterson was listening to his voice messages and the police even recorded a chuckle he gave into the phone after hearing one of the messages from his mother telling him to follow a possible lead. That one kind of stunned me.