Stupid Cell Phone law going into effect....

One of the lessons I've learned in living here is that mañana does not mean "tomorrow". Mañana means "not today". The conceptual content of mañana is infinite.

 

People and systems here seem to be pretty much rotten at estimating how long things will take to accomplish. It may not be their fault however, I suspect it's environmental since I've gotten much worse at it myself since moving here.

 

With regard to today's arrest of the Times Square car bombing suspect:

Cellphone led FBI to Times Square car bomb suspect arrest - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

The website Politico, citing an unnamed senior official, reported that a number from a disposable cell phone used by the buyer of the SUV had led to the suspect's arrest.

“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official told Politico.

The suspect no longer had the phone, the website reported.

So it would seem that with correct database management, even disposables are subject to back tracing.

 

Just because I enjoy arguing with you...

Yeah, if you're dumb enough to use your real info, as apparently this guy did. You can still by a prepaid phone with cash, call the free number and tell them you're Donald Duck living at 1600 Penn ave.. and not ever have to show ID to anyone last I checked in the US... this guy either wanted to be known (to gain notoriety) or was just really clueless... (as evidenced by the bomb not going off, as if there are not plenty of websites that will show you how to make a proper bomb if you really want to) if all else fails a good fake ID will get you just about anything in the US....


so let's not play up the benefits of giant big brother databases just yet... :xyxthumbs:

Thanks btw Mixz1, got Nancy setup yesterday...

 

Speaking of the cell phone law.. does anyone know if anyone has actually been cut-off... no one I know has, as of yet....

 

First, you're welcome. Nancy deserves the best and I'm glad we could help her.

Second, I think you'll find that the purchaser's identity or false identity used to procure the cell phone had nothing to do with his discovery and capture. I think you'll find that the call records, both inbound and outbound had more to do with it. And before you bang off an instant WTF, think hard about how this can be done.

Remember he was shopping for a car, relying on the anonymity of the phone, but the car sellers phone carrier now has a record of the caller's IME. Correlate the IME with international calls. Develop a short table of recipients and go back to who sold the Nissan, whose VIN you already have.

As it turns out there was email involved in the purchase of the Nissan. At the same time, you know the recipients of calls from that IME who are in nations where constitutional guarantees aren't as strong as the US, and foreign intelligence service are freer to "sweat" details from interrogation subjects and you can see how you develop a weave that you can very quickly tighten into a noose.

You have the caller's recipients and you have the callers email address with its associated geographically significant IP address. By this time the phone could be flushed into the Atlantic. It wouldn't matter.

Most people don't fully understand the capabilities of Echelon, the sigintel program operated by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, The UK and the US. I can guarantee you that Echelon played a key part in finding this guy and the 4 who were arrested in Pakistan as well.

 

WTF???


No, really, I understand how it could be done, but that would depend greatly on the person doing the crime being rather stupid and using the same phones and emails for all of his "work"... as opposed to one 24 hour phone per task, never used near his actual place of residence, and certainly not used to make calls to associates... likewise not having emails that you've used to talk with other criminals be the same or connected to the ones used for purchases... don't get me wrong, there are plenty of stupid criminals out there who have very little understanding of such things, but I tend to think they aren't the ones we should be most worried about.. or give up our privacy and freedom to catch.... You know as well as anyone that someone with a bit of technical knowledge and intelligence could make it very difficult to be tracked by technological means. I am aware that there is a good chance everything I say on the phone or write in an email (or message forum) is being processed by a spy computer somewhere, but if I wanted to be more covert I think I could do a pretty good job of thwarting most systems and databases... just like 007

 

You guys are better than the trashy spy novel I'm reading right now.

I, too, have yet to hear of anyone whose phone was turned off. But then even the people I knew who were holding out and not registering for political reasons have now done so. I'm not sure I know anyone who didn't register.

 

So, now that we've registered our cell phones what should one do if it is stolen/lost? In the past I would have just written it off and bought a new one. If it could be used for something illegal it would stand to reason that we'd have to report it. But, to who?

 

I assume you report it to the cell phone company as you have to have the phone to remove or change the government registration info. Makes selling phones a bit more interesting too...