It’s possible that someone used a sophisticated device to spy on a phone at the 2024 DNC

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has concluded that someone likely deployed a cellphone surveillance system during the Democratic National Convention last summer, according to an EFF report. New report From wired. Evidence for this assertion comes from Cooper Quentin, a senior technician at the EFF, who spent time investigating whether police technologies were deployed during the course of the event. Wired worked with EFF to conduct an analysis of the radio signal data. What they found is evidence that someone may have used a cell site simulator to spy on the devices.

Cell site simulators are controversial police tools that can pick up radio signals from the air and store them for later analysis. Cell site simulations basically run Man in the middle The attack method is to convince mobile devices that they are cell towers and should send their signals to them. These attacks can reveal important personal information, such as location data, call metadata, and application traffic, providing an important window into mobile activity. The famous brand of cell site simulator is Stingray.

Wire reporters Travel to the DNC Last summer, used phones equipped with special software. This software was created by EFF and is designed to capture anomalous data related to devices. Wired describes their experience as follows:

WIRED attended protests across the city, events at the United Center (where the DNC was held), and social gatherings with lobbyists, political figures, and influencers. We spent time walking the perimeter of the marches and through planned protest sites before, during and after these events.

In this process we captured Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular signals. We then analyzed those signals for specific device IDs and other suspicious signs that could indicate the presence of a cell site simulator.

After analyzing the data from those devices, Quinton told Wired it seemed to show that someone may have been deploying a cell site simulator in the area at the time of the conference. Wired magazine wrote that one of the devices reporters were carrying “suddenly transformed into a new tower.” This tower then “dialed the device’s IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) number and then immediately dropped the connection — a sequence consistent with running a cell site simulator.”

“This is very suspicious behavior that normal zodiac signs don’t exhibit,” Quentin told Wired about the analysis. “This is not a 100% indisputable fact, but it is strong evidence that a cell site simulator was deployed. We do not know who is responsible, it could have been the US government, foreign actors, or another entity.”

Gizmodo has reached out to the EFF for more information.

It is not known what would motivate someone to use the surveillance system at the Democratic National Convention, although there is a clear reason why police would want to monitor local phones at the time. The conference was marred Ongoing protests Because of the Biden administration’s support for the Israeli attack on Gaza. At the time of the protests, it was over 40 thousand Palestinians Most of them were reportedly killed They were women and childrenAccording to one United Nations estimate. Thousands of demonstrators They gathered outside the DNC in Chicago. In some cases, protesters were arrested for breaching a barricade outside the convention center.