Senators Leahy & Grassley Quiz DOJ & DHS About Secret Fake Phone Towers Intercepting Calls

from the good-for-them dept

We've written plenty about Stingrays and other "IMSI Catcher" devices that allow law enforcement to set up what are effectively fake cell phone towers, designed to intercept calls and locate certain individuals. These devices are deployed in near total secrecy, often by law enforcement who got them from the federal government. There is little to no oversight over how these are used (and abused). The attempts to keep the details a total secret represent really egregious behavior from all involved. As we've covered, police have claimed that non-disclosure agreements with the manufacturers (such as Harris Corp.) prevent them from getting a warrant to use the devices. The DOJ, somewhat famously, had a whole plan for how to mislead judges about the use of these devices, with official documentation telling DOJ officials to be "less than explicit" and "less than forthright" to judges about how the tech was being used. In some cases, the US Marshals have stepped in and seized documents from local police forces to block them from being released in response to FOIA requests.

In short, law enforcement really doesn't want how it uses these devices revealed. And yet, reporters and activists keep digging up more information, including the WSJ finding out that the US Marshals (them again!) have been putting airborne versions of these devices, called DRT boxes, on airplanes and flying them over cities, likely scooping up information on tons of innocent people with no warrant.

At least some in our government are concerned about this. Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Grassley have been pressing government officials on this, and before the holidays sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Boss Jeh Johnson demanding answers. One very interesting tidbit is that in response to some of this public disclosure, the FBI now, at least, gets warrants before using the technology -- but the Senators would like more details:

We wrote to FBI Director Comey in June seeking information about law enforcement use of cell-site simulators. Since then, our staff members have participated in two briefings with FBI officials, and at the most recent session they learned that the FBI recently changed its policy with respect to the type of legal process that it typically seeks before employing this type of technology. According to this new policy, the FBI now obtains a search warrant before deploying a cell-site simulator, although the policy contains a number of potentially broad exceptions and we continue to have questions about how it is being implemented in practice. Furthermore, it remains unclear how other agencies within the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security make use of cell-site simulators and what policies are in place to govern their use of that technology.

But, still, the Senators would like a few more details:

The Judiciary Committee needs a broader understanding of the full range of law enforcement agencies that use this technology, the policies in place to protect the privacy interests of those whose information might be collected using these devices, and the legal process that DOJ and DHS entities seek prior to using them.

For example, we understand that the FBI’s new policy requires FBI agents to obtain a search warrant whenever a cell-site simulator is used as part of a FBI investigation or operation, unless one of several exceptions apply, including (among others): (1) cases that pose an imminent danger to public safety, (2) cases that involve a fugitive, or (3) cases in which the technology is used in public places or other locations at which the FBI deems there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.

We have concerns about the scope of the exceptions. Specifically, we are concerned about whether the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have adequately considered the privacy interests of other individuals who are not the targets of the interception, but whose information is nevertheless being collected when these devices are being used. We understand that the FBI believes that it can address these interests by maintaining that information for a short period of time and purging the information after it has been collected. But there is a question as to whether this sufficiently safeguards privacy interests.

The specific questions being asked:

1. Since the effective date of the FBI’s new policy:

a. How many times has the FBI used a cell-site simulator?
b. In how many of these instances was the use of the cell-site simulator authorized by a search warrant?
c. In how many of these instances was the use of the cell-site simulator authorized by some other form of legal process? Please identify the legal process used.
d. In how many of these instances was the cell-site simulator used without any legal process?
e. How many times has each of the exceptions to the search warrant policy, including those listed above, been used by the FBI?

2. From January 1, 2010, to the effective date of the FBI’s new policy:

a. How many times did the FBI use a cell-site simulator?
b. In how many of these instances was the use of a cell-site simulator authorized by a search warrant?
c. In how many of these instances was the use of the cell-site simulator authorized by some other form of legal process? Please identify the legal process used.
d. In how many of these instances was the cell-site simulator used without any legal process?
e. In how many of the instances referenced in Question 2(d) did the FBI use a cell-site simulator in a public place or other location in which the FBI deemed there is no reasonable expectation of privacy?

3. What is the FBI’s current policy on the retention and destruction of the information collected by cell-site simulators in all cases? How is that policy enforced?

4. What other DOJ and DHS agencies use cell-site simulators?

5. What is the policy of these agencies regarding the legal process needed for use of cell-site simulators?

a. Are these agencies seeking search warrants specific to the use of cell-site simulators?
b. If not, what legal authorities are they using?
c. Do these agencies make use of public place or other exceptions? If so, in what proportion of all instances in which the technology is used are exceptions relied upon?
d. What are these agencies’ policies on the retention and destruction of the information that is collected by cell-site simulators? How are those policies enforced?

6. What is the Department of Justice’s guidance to United States Attorneys’ Offices regarding the legal process required for the use of cell-site simulators?

7. Across all DOJ and DHS entities, what protections exist to safeguard the privacy interests of individuals who are not the targets of interception, but whose information is nevertheless being collected by cell-site simulators?

Anyone taking bets on how few of these questions will actually be answered?

Filed Under: chuck grassley, drt boxes, imsi catchers, patrick leahy, privacy, stingray, stingrays, us marshals, warrants
Companies: boeing, harris corp.

DailyDirt: Moving To Outer Space (Temporarily)

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The number of ways to get people into space is at a record low right now, but some projects on the horizon are planning to get more people living in space in the not too distant future. Commercial space ventures are going to be shuttling (or capsule-ing, as the case may be) people to low earth orbit, and some other projects are aiming for more distant journeys. Here are just a few space exploration plans to keep an eye on if you still want to be an astronaut someday.

• In December, NASA is planning to launch Orion on a Delta IV Heavy rocket as a test for its next generation manned space vehicle that may one day get astronauts to Mars. No one will be on board for the first trip, but the craft will be gathering data to make sure the vessel is suitable for transporting people comfortably and safely. [url]
• The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is an inflatable habitat that can connect to the International Space Station and provide commercial living space for a little over $50 million for a 2 month stay. This will be a steal compared to the current $40 million price tag for an individual to stay on the ISS for a week. (No word yet if you'll be able to re-rent out your spot on Airbnb.) [url]
• The optimism of the Mars One project should not be dismissed, but the technology to actually build a viable colony on the red planet may be further from reality than 2025. An analysis from some MIT students concludes that Mars One is unlikely to be sustainable with the current state of its technological progress. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: beam, colony, delta iv, iss, leo, manned missions, mars, mars one, orion, space, space exploration
Companies: bigelow, boeing, mit, nasa, spacex

DailyDirt: Traveling Fast Via Waterways

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

An enormous amount of cargo travels by boat, and historically, sea transport has been the largest carrier of freight. However, traveling over water isn't a very speedy mode of transportation (typically <20 mph), but there are some possible ways to go faster (though they don't come cheap). Here are just a few examples of sea-going ships that would definitely beat a slow boat to China.

• Chinese researchers are working on making super-fast submarines that can travel over 750 mph. The vessels would rely on supercavitation (aka forming bubbles around the ship) and some kind of liquid-membrane technology to help launch and steer the sub. It's not clear how far along this submarine technology is, but it would be really amazing for a sub to cross the Pacific in a few hours. [url]
• Fast ships taking advantage of ground effect aerodynamics have existed for decades. Russian shipbuilders had many Ekranoplan designs that could fly low over water and efficiently transport large amounts of cargo. There was even a project with a "wing in ground" design for launching spacecraft from the equator. [url]
• Hydrofoils were also a specialty of Russian shipbuilding, and there could be a minor resurgence in passenger hydrofoils. Some Boeing 929 Jetfoils operate in Asia, but the complexity of hydrofoil vessels is a disadvantage for economical commercial transportation. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: boats, cargo, ekranoplan, ground effect, hydrofoil, ships, submarines, supercavitation, transportation, wing in ground
Companies: boeing

DailyDirt: Going To Space

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Only three countries have developed manned space vehicles: Russia, US and China. However, since the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program, the US has not had a vehicle (of its own) ready to take astronauts to space. The European Union, Japan, and India have plans to develop manned space programs, and several commercial ventures are working on various ways to get people into space (or at least close to the edge of space). Here are a few ways Americans might get into space in the not-too-distant future.

• NASA will be sending astronauts into space on Boeing and SpaceX rockets in a few years. By 2017 (if everything goes right), NASA won't need to rely on the Russian Federation Space Agency to get astronauts to the International Space Station. [url]
• There's a relatively cheap way for tourists to visit the edge of space -- in a helium balloon. For the bargain price of just $75,000, World View Enterprises will take a passenger on a 5-hour ride up to 100,000 feet in a pressurized capsule hanging from a giant balloon. The first launch is planned for 2016. (For comparison, Virgin Galactic tickets cost about $250,000 and a trip on a Soyuz to the ISS can cost anywhere from $20-70 million.) [url]
• NASA has been working on its own Orion Space Capsule vehicle designed to take astronauts to various destinations in our solar system. The Orion spacecraft system is planning an unmanned test launch in December 2014, and it could be sending astronauts back to the moon (or beyond) by the 2030s. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: astronauts, iss, manned missions, orion, soyuz, space exploration, space vehicles
Companies: boeing, nasa, spacex, virgin galactic, world view enterprises

Brazil Passed On Boeing For $4.5 Billion Fighter Jet Deal Because Of Concerns Over NSA Surveillance

from the costly... dept

We've pointed out a few times now, how the NSA seems unable to do basic cost-benefit analysis on its widespread surveillance. The NSA still seems to think that its surveillance is "costless" (perhaps beyond the $70 billion or so from taxpayers). However, as we've pointed out time and time again, distrust in US businesses thanks to the NSA's overreaching surveillance creates a very real cost for the economy.

And it seems to be growing day by day. Brazil, which has been one of the more vocal protesters concerning NSA surveillance, has just awarded a $4.5 billion contract for new fighter jets to Saab, rather than Boeing, which many expected to get the deal. And, Brazilian officials are making it clear that the NSA surveillance issue played a major role in throwing the contract from the Americans to the Swedes.

Until earlier this year, Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet had been considered the front runner. But revelations of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency in Brazil, including personal communication by Rousseff, led Brazil to believe it could not trust a U.S. company.

"The NSA problem ruined it for the Americans," a Brazilian government source said on condition of anonymity.

So, as someone asks in the article, did the NSA's spying on Brazil provide over $4 billion in benefits to the US? That seems unlikely. Maybe now, someone, somewhere within the US government will finally start to do a cost-benefit analysis on the NSA's surveillance that actually takes into account how people will react when it is inevitably revealed how far the spying goes.

Filed Under: benefit, brazil, business, cost, fighter jets, nsa, surveillance
Companies: boeing, saab

DailyDirt: Supersonic Flights

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Remember the Concorde? It was the longest operating commercial supersonic aircraft that flew its last flight in 2003 after 27 years of service. With a cruising speed of 1,350 mph (Mach 2), the Concorde could fly from New York to London in under 3 hours. For more than 20 years, the Concorde was the fastest and safest airliner in the world, but a deadly crash in 2000 that killed all 109 people on board, as well as 4 people on the ground, precipitated the demise of the Concorde, which was already suffering from a general downturn in the aviation industry. There hasn't been a successor to the Concorde since it was retired, but perhaps the following are some possibilities.

• Apparently, a secret team of Boeing engineers is still working on the Sonic Cruiser, which was cancelled and replaced by the 787 Dreamliner. Technically, the Sonic Cruiser isn't supersonic, since it's designed to fly at 0.98 Mach, but its design has changed a bit since the original was proposed. The engines, which would have F-35 like variable geometry chevrons, are now located over (rather than embedded in) the wings, which now also have vertical stabilizers. [url]
• The X-51A WaveRider "Scramjet," an unmanned hypersonic aircraft, successfully reached Mach 5.1 in its final test flight. It traveled 230 nautical miles in just over 6 minutes and was the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever. The X-51A is unique in that it uses a hydrocarbon (rather than hydrogen) fuel in its supersonic combustion engine.[url]
• Why isn't there a successor to the Concorde? Perhaps it's because we're too cheap to fly faster. In fact, we're actually flying slower today than we were 50 years ago. In 1958, airliners were traveling at cruising speeds of just over 600 mph, compared to today's more fuel efficient 550 mph.[url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: aircraft, airline, aviation, concorde, dreamliner, flying, jet, mach, plane, scramjet, sonic cruiser, supersonic
Companies: boeing

DailyDirt: Commercial Astronauts

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Canadian "rockstar" astronaut Chris Hadfield, who just returned from the International Space Station, says he's retiring. (Yep, he's the guy who performed David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in zero-g while orbiting the Earth.) While he may be retiring from the Canadian Space Agency, he may not be done with spaceflight just yet, as he sees commercial spaceflight as a real possibility. In the past decade, several private commercial spaceflight ventures have been seriously developing and testing their own spacecraft, and eventually "commercial astronauts" will be needed to help run commercial space missions and space tourism flights. Here's some of the latest news in commercial spaceflight.

• Astronauts for Hire (A4H), a non-profit organization, has selected its fourth group of commercial astronaut candidates. The six new recruits, who are professionals in various fields of science, engineering, medicine, and aviation, will be trained to become research and operations specialists for future commercial spaceflight missions. [url]
• The X Prize Foundation is currently offering a total of $30 million in prize money to the first two teams to land a robot on the moon by the end of 2015. Aiming to spur commercial spaceflight innovation, the non-profit foundation also previously awarded the Ansari X Prize in 2004 to Scaled Composites for its SpaceShipOne, which Virgin Galactic has now developed into the suborbital commercial spacecraft SpaceShipTwo.[url]
• There are at least ten private spaceships in development right now. Here are the ten most promising ones: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, XCOR's Lynx Space Plane (check out Dutch startup SXC which might give Virgin Galactic a run for its money), Armadillo Aerospace's Vertical Lander, Bigelow Aerospace's Private Space Labs, Stratolaunch's Air-Launched Rocket, the Liberty Rocket and Capsule, Blue Origin's Secret Spaceship, the Dream Chaser Space Plane, Boeing's CST-100 Capsule, and SpaceX's Manned Space Dragon.[url]
• Virgin Galactic is preparing to test its SpaceShipTwo and hopefully launch its first commercial spaceflight in 2014. At least 600 customers worldwide have already reserved tickets, which cost upwards of $200,000. Apparently, tickets recently went up to $250,000 and will remain at that price until the first 1,000 passengers have travelled into space.[url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: a4h, astronauts, chris hadfield, iss, manned space exploration, x prize
Companies: armadillo aerospace, bigelow aerospace, boeing, nasa, spacex, stratolaunch, virgin galactic, xcor

DailyDirt: Alternatives To Projectile Weapons

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Ray guns have been exclusive to science fiction for quite some time now. So far, hurling bits of metal is pretty effective, but it seems so barbaric. Even Tasers aren't wireless. Here are just a few examples of some impressive directed energy weapons that are getting close to becoming actual tools of war.

• The Russians are working on electromagnetic radiation guns that can attack a target's organs or central nervous system. Such electromagnetic weapons could burn people's skin from a distance or lobotomize crowds of people with a sweeping zap. [url]
• Boeing and the US Air Force have tested a high power microwave weapon that can fry electronics and disable the electrical systems of an entire building. This weapon wouldn't kill anyone directly, but it could be useful for knocking out infrastructure in a prelude to a conventional military attack. [url]
• A Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) can direct an artificial bolt of lightning at a conductive target. A laser pulse shot directed at a bad guy can zap him by creating plasma from the air that is synchronized with extremely high voltage. But what if the enemy has a lightning rod? [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: emp, lightning, lipc, microwave, plasma, weapons
Companies: boeing, usaf

DailyDirt: I'm Leavin' On A Space Plane, Don't Know When I'll Be Back Again....

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

NASA's space shuttle program is winding down, but it seems like there's some growing interest in going to space. SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004, and even though it only touches the edge of space, it's still a pretty remarkable achievement. But it's about 6 years later, and trips to space aren't exactly tickets you can buy on Orbitz (or Priceline or Expedia, etc). Here are a few interesting links on space travel and traveling in the future (not *to* the future).

• According to WikiLeaks, Turkey apparently tried to get a Turkish astronaut on the space shuttle -- in exchange for buying some Boeing planes. Is having a national astronaut really that prestigious? International politics shouldn't be like winning Civ and getting to Alpha Centauri.... [url]
• Orbital Sciences Corp has proposed a space plane to replace NASA's shuttle for ferrying people and stuff to the ISS. Space plane versus capsule designs... I'd bet the capsules will win, but there's no denying the coolness factor of a winged spaceship. [url]
• In 2013, Russia is going to start selling space tourism tickets again. A 10-day trip to space for over $35M... "We could buy our own ship for that! But who's gonna fly it kid... you?" [url]
• NASA is also looking at some regular plane designs to make flying more efficient in 2025. Space is probably over-rated, anyway. [url]

Filed Under: iss, nasa, space shuttle, spaceshipone
Companies: boeing, orbital sciences corporation

DailyDirt: Robot Helicopters

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Flying is a great mode of transportation. Technically, though, there are a few different kinds of flying. Gliding or soaring like a sparrow (African or European, it doesn't matter) is fine, but the capabilities of a helicopter are sometimes much more useful. Hovering and vertical take-offs are really neat tricks. Maybe not as neat as a Firefly "Crazy Ivan" -- but it's a bit unfair to compare fictional flying maneuvers to actual aerial feats. Anyway, here are a few cool robotic helicopters.

• Autonomous helicopters from the University of Pennsylvania can work together in teams to build simple structures. It would have been a bit creepier if the video demonstrated a honeycomb structure being built. [url]
• Artificial "samaras" are little flying helicopters -- modeled after the single-wing seeds that drop from maple trees. These robotic samaras can climb, hover and move in arbitrary flight paths -- and if there's a updraft, they can stay afloat while expending minimal energy. [url]
• Boeing's unmanned A160T Hummingbird can deliver cargo without endangering a helicopter pilot. And Skynet is just about to become self-aware.... [url]

Filed Under: helicopters, samaras, skynet
Companies: boeing