Stealth Ping with GSM?
smsblaster
stolen cellphone it is possible for the police to send a "hidden"
short text message, a so-called "stealth ping" to any gsm phone.
This sms will not appear on the screen on the user. How do I know if
my cellphone is able to get stealth pings? What softtware generates
stealth pings? How so I turn off this feature? Buy an ancient
pre-SMS-phone?
Thanks a lot for your help!
J.
gabor salai
news:45663d0f.0303...@posting.google.com...
when switched on, gsm is periodicaly, every few seconds, in conection
with the nearest base station, so network operator may easily locate
approximative position of every gsm simply by scanning base station's
database.
am i right?
Nicole Wegener
> This sms will not appear on the screen on the user. How do I know if
> my cellphone is able to get stealth pings? What softtware generates
> stealth pings? How so I turn off this feature? Buy an ancient
> pre-SMS-phone?
I think this is virtually nonsense. As Gabor said: if the cellphone is connected to the network, the service provider can locate it anyway (without letting the customer know).
So why should they send any bogus SMS messages in order to do that?
If the police (judge) wants to locate any GSM phone, the service provider will do it - using their default network tools.
Sincerely,
Nicole
Nicole Wegener
Nigel Brooks 盒偃悟
What is used is a piece of equipment called a "Cell Site Simulator".
If a cell phone is on, it is in communication with the cell site. The cell
site can send out a query which makes all cell phones in it's area respond
with their identifying ESN.
All the simulator does is to mimic the cell site. Once the target is
identified - it can be located with DF equipment.
The only way to defeat it is to keep the cell phone turned off.
Pablo Escobar was located using the same techniques.
--
Nigel Brooks
Donald Newcomb
> As a journalist I am researching the following rumor:
While this may be possible, it is completely unnecessary.
GSM phones make contact with the network:
1. When they are turned on or off.
2. When the network makes a periodic random query.
3. When they move to a new coverage zone*.
At the very least, the network operator already knows the zone in
which the phone is operating. With a simple query, they can establish
the nearest cell. With advanced measurement techniques they can locate
the phone to within a few hundred meters. None of this requires that
the operator do anything that the user would ever notice. They don't
have to send an SMS, ring the phone or anything like that. The phone
just has to be turned on.
Donald Newcomb
DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net
Norbert Huettisch
> stolen cellphone it is possible for the police to send a "hidden"
> short text message, a so-called "stealth ping" to any gsm phone.
'stealth-ping'. Funny.
When registered, a GSM phone will contact the network in regular
intervals, to let the network know in which location area it is. This is
called a periodic location update.
I the network wants to know in which cell the mobile is right now, it
obviously needs to contact the phone right now.
Sending a short message (sending SMS is, as a technical term, nonsense,
which started to propagate here in europe. You should not adopt it) is a
good way to do this.
If you do not want the user to see that he has received a short message,
its easy:
- create a short message with a user data header
- create a 'special message indication' header element
- set 'receiving MS shall store message' to off
- set 'voice indication for 0 messages'
- do not add any text to the message
Send this.
A easy way to see if your partner has switched on his mobile. He will
not see the message, but you will get a delivery report.
> This sms will not appear on the screen on the user. How do I know if
> my cellphone is able to get stealth pings?
Most phones support this. Test it.
N.
Jeremy Quirke
"gabor salai" <gabor...@euroherc.hr> wrote in message
news:b69cqm$fvpn$1...@as201.hinet.hr...
No. The only time a GSM phone communicates with the network without being
asked by either the network or user is for a periodic or normal location
update.
The operator only knows the current Location Area (LA) the MS is in. It has
to page the MS via all the cells in that LA to determine which cell the MS
is listening to; furthermore, it needs to wait for a Measurement Report
(containing BSICs and RXLEV of neighbouring cells) before it can reasonably
predict the subscriber's geographic location.