Man
Professional
- Messages
- 3,059
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 113
"Not on the phone." "I'll call you back from another number." "Let's go outside, take a walk, it's better not to talk here." Such phrases have become firmly entrenched in the life of the Russian establishment.
Today, everyone knows: they listen to everyone, listen without regard for the law, and the materials of these wiretaps are often used not in court, but in political intrigues, denunciations, provocations.
Each telecom operator has equipment that allows security forces to access the conversations of any client at any time (operators are required to do this by law). And the regional FSB department has a remote access terminal, with which you can start listening to any mobile phone user in a few clicks.
Who is being listened to and how to protect yourself from wiretapping?
There are recordings of everyone's conversations, for several months, if they are interested in you, they will be able to listen to what and to whom you once told.
To be permanently wiretapped, you need to be a major businessman, a politician, a suspect in extremism, a member of an organized crime group under investigation, a participant in large-scale opaque financial transactions (cashing out, etc.). Of course, the list is not complete, but you get the idea.
Another proven way to become a victim of wiretapping has appeared - criticizing the current government or going to protest demonstrations. Of course, not all participants in street protests will be wiretapped, but the most active ones will definitely be.
How to protect yourself
Almost nothing. Firstly, it is useless to change SIM cards: it is not the mobile number that is wiretapped, but the unique telephone number (IMEI). No matter what SIM card is installed in the phone, it will still be "live".
Many representatives of the establishment and businessmen carry several phones with them, believing that one "regular" one is wiretapped, and the others - the "left" ones - are not. "This is naive. If a person is wiretapped, law enforcement officers constantly receive information about the location of his phone. For this, the phone does not necessarily need to have a GPS module installed, the location of even the simplest and cheapest handset is determined by base stations with an accuracy of several meters. And if you carry several handsets with you, according to geolocation data, it is clear that there are always 2-3 others near your "main" number. They are also immediately wiretapped, so walking around with a bunch of phones is completely pointless
However, there is a small trick with two handsets that allows you to relatively reliably maintain the secrecy of conversations. Let's say there are two devices - A and B. A is used constantly, and there is reason to believe that it is being tapped. B is for confidential conversations, registered to another person. In this case, A and B should never be turned on at the same time and next to each other. If you need to make a call on the "secret" phone B, you turn off A, drive further away, to the coverage area of another base station, then turn on B, make a call. Then turn off B, drive again to another base station and only then turn on A.
Particularly cautious victims of wiretapping prefer to turn off the phone during an important conversation or hide it somewhere far away.
The ability to record through a phone in standby mode exists, but this technology is rarely used. In these cases, the so-called microphone effect is used. This can only be done if a team of specialists is working in the immediate vicinity of the interlocutors. The signal receiver and the recording device must be located somewhere nearby.
Messengers and social networks
Telegram
The encryption method is one of the safest and is called end-to-end, since all messages are encrypted on the sender's gadget and decrypted on the recipient's gadget.
There is one BUT, this encryption technology works in Telegram only in secret chats. In normal mode, encrypted messages are transmitted through the server. And they can be intercepted and read there.
If you want to use the full power of Telegram encryption technologies, you need to use only secret chats.
Viber
Chat backups are stored in the open, which is very unreliable. + No two-factor authentication. If we discuss how much to chip in for curtains for school, it is quite suitable, but something serious ...
WhatsApp
No secret chats. Storing information on devices in the open and using cloud storage for backup data are big disadvantages. There is no serious protection for the scenario when your smartphone falls into the wrong hands. I do not consider it safe.
Facebook, Skype, VKontakte, etc. are absolutely unreliable.
Solution: Signal app. Chats in this messenger are encrypted by default, and even the creators of the app cannot find out what you are chatting about, when and with whom.
Today, everyone knows: they listen to everyone, listen without regard for the law, and the materials of these wiretaps are often used not in court, but in political intrigues, denunciations, provocations.
Each telecom operator has equipment that allows security forces to access the conversations of any client at any time (operators are required to do this by law). And the regional FSB department has a remote access terminal, with which you can start listening to any mobile phone user in a few clicks.
Who is being listened to and how to protect yourself from wiretapping?
There are recordings of everyone's conversations, for several months, if they are interested in you, they will be able to listen to what and to whom you once told.
To be permanently wiretapped, you need to be a major businessman, a politician, a suspect in extremism, a member of an organized crime group under investigation, a participant in large-scale opaque financial transactions (cashing out, etc.). Of course, the list is not complete, but you get the idea.
Another proven way to become a victim of wiretapping has appeared - criticizing the current government or going to protest demonstrations. Of course, not all participants in street protests will be wiretapped, but the most active ones will definitely be.
How to protect yourself
Almost nothing. Firstly, it is useless to change SIM cards: it is not the mobile number that is wiretapped, but the unique telephone number (IMEI). No matter what SIM card is installed in the phone, it will still be "live".
Many representatives of the establishment and businessmen carry several phones with them, believing that one "regular" one is wiretapped, and the others - the "left" ones - are not. "This is naive. If a person is wiretapped, law enforcement officers constantly receive information about the location of his phone. For this, the phone does not necessarily need to have a GPS module installed, the location of even the simplest and cheapest handset is determined by base stations with an accuracy of several meters. And if you carry several handsets with you, according to geolocation data, it is clear that there are always 2-3 others near your "main" number. They are also immediately wiretapped, so walking around with a bunch of phones is completely pointless
However, there is a small trick with two handsets that allows you to relatively reliably maintain the secrecy of conversations. Let's say there are two devices - A and B. A is used constantly, and there is reason to believe that it is being tapped. B is for confidential conversations, registered to another person. In this case, A and B should never be turned on at the same time and next to each other. If you need to make a call on the "secret" phone B, you turn off A, drive further away, to the coverage area of another base station, then turn on B, make a call. Then turn off B, drive again to another base station and only then turn on A.
Particularly cautious victims of wiretapping prefer to turn off the phone during an important conversation or hide it somewhere far away.
The ability to record through a phone in standby mode exists, but this technology is rarely used. In these cases, the so-called microphone effect is used. This can only be done if a team of specialists is working in the immediate vicinity of the interlocutors. The signal receiver and the recording device must be located somewhere nearby.
Messengers and social networks
Telegram
The encryption method is one of the safest and is called end-to-end, since all messages are encrypted on the sender's gadget and decrypted on the recipient's gadget.
There is one BUT, this encryption technology works in Telegram only in secret chats. In normal mode, encrypted messages are transmitted through the server. And they can be intercepted and read there.
If you want to use the full power of Telegram encryption technologies, you need to use only secret chats.
Viber
Chat backups are stored in the open, which is very unreliable. + No two-factor authentication. If we discuss how much to chip in for curtains for school, it is quite suitable, but something serious ...
No secret chats. Storing information on devices in the open and using cloud storage for backup data are big disadvantages. There is no serious protection for the scenario when your smartphone falls into the wrong hands. I do not consider it safe.
Facebook, Skype, VKontakte, etc. are absolutely unreliable.
Solution: Signal app. Chats in this messenger are encrypted by default, and even the creators of the app cannot find out what you are chatting about, when and with whom.
