Why would terrorists use the phone anyway NSA?

Lets assume a fully encrypted text message sent over TOR via a public wifi router is out of the question, like maybe hearing the voice of his contact in Pakistan is the highlight of some low level grunt’s day. :slight_smile:

Now back in 2004 I was using freeware software where all you needed to do was know the IP address of the other side to create a free VOIP connection, as the years went on I moved to better software featuring encryption etc. So why exactly would these well funded terrorists not be using a PC to PC audio connection that bypasses any service provider? Why use the antiquated and almost laughable in 2013 phone system?:dubious:

I find it hilarious the NSA is monitoring phone metadata, they might catch a terrorist talking to his mom(about the only reason I ever call a “real” phone number.

Using public key encryption to establish a direct PC to PC audio connection on a random port through a VPN/TOR/public wifi doesn’t leave any meta data to mine. I guess you could have ISPs monitoring for data streams that look like VOIP, but recording encrypted noise isn’t productive. These terrorists need me as a consultant!

Where do you get the idea that terrorists are “well funded”, or come to that, technically savvy? It is true that Bin Laden had money, but that was mostly seized even before he was killed. A few may know a bit about computers, but most terrorists are doofuses, with a shoestring budget, and they fuck up most of their attacks. (Although, unfortunately even doofuses on a shoestring can manage to set off a bomb in a crowded area sometimes.)

While probably not typical, I’m guessing more than a few terrorist cells live in less-than-urban areas, and I expect they move a lot to avoid being found. Weren’t there often news reports about Bin Laden et al living in caves? A cell phone is lots easier to lug around than a laptop.

error

Oh I don’t know, maybe from dire warnings like this.

Uh, that’s how they located the courier for Bin Laden.

…especially now that some NSA methods are being splashed all over the news. I guess that’s why some secrets should be kept.

Considering there are apparently thousands of people involved with “top security” clearances, good luck with that. It was never going to stay “secret” anyway, but they can pretend, I suppose.

It’s more than just thousands, Doggo. According to this book (and the series of articles in The Washington Post that it was made from), there are around 854,000 people with top secret clearances, around 265,000 of whom are contractors rather than government employees:

100’s of thousands of top secret clearances.
Given the numbers, the leaks are quite rare actually.

In regard to Snowden, frankly it wasn’t exactly news. The biggest thing in the story is that the Gov’t classified the information so highly. TS is one thing, and I believe (I don’t have a TS clearance) that no-foreign is almost automatic for TS, but comsec puts it into another realm.
The biggest effect from this will be the knots the security services will tie themselves up in trying to find a messenger to shoot. They are already going after the company that did the background check, so anyone waiting for a clearance might as well look for a new job, Booz-Allen is in trouble and they are the biggest name in this business, and sysadmins in general are going to be scrutinized a lot more. Some suit somewhere is going to stop attending meetings long enough to realize that sysadmins have the keys to the kingdom (root privilege) and want that stopped. If that happens the computer systems everyone depends on are going to grind down quickly.

Terrorists use the phone to complain about the water supply.

By all reason they shouldn’t use phones–as anyone with half a brain knows that stuff can be monitored–but people do unreasonable things all the time. Terrorists are even less likely to be an exception.

Because Walmart stopped carrying VHS tapes.

Even the Mossad & CIA have been tripped up using cell phones and meta data.

Cubans and Russians have been caught trying to use secure communication methods. It is no guarantee and can be a dead giveaway you are a spy/criminal.

Bin Laden was smart in that he burned his trash, Had a huge fence, and never left the house. The govt pretty much used all this info to figure he was either a terrorist or drug dealer.

Keeping good operational security isn’t easy. I’ve been to security conferences where there are people teaching lock picking. They talk about insecure locks, but more than one of them has admitted to me they haven’t upgraded their own. I know a guy who does computer security for a living with no password on his phone.

It’s not a secret that secure communications in and of itself is a big red flag if most people aren’t using it.

Even a CIA director was brought down in part cause of poor security on his part.

This reminds me of the Brosnan-era Bond movie with a villain which, although MI6 couldn’t locate him on the entire planet, they could track the progress of a bullet migrating through his brain (which incidentially made him stronger and more invulnerable to pain) to the millimeter. It was ridiculous as the plot of a Bond film and even more absurd as an actual intellegence estimate on which national military policy was based.

Stranger