Olympics bosses probe mobile tracking tech Security officials preparing counter-terror measures for the 2012 Olympics are considering deploying technology that can continuously pinpoint the location of mobile phones. Civil servants have held meetings with TruePosition, a US mobile location firm trying to break into the UK telecoms market. Its technology can be used to …
Rapid increase in sales of metal cases to block phone location system (portable farraday cage).
AFAIK, the deviuces in the US System works with the phone switched off and the only way to disable it is to take the battery out. I wonder if this is the same here?
Blck Helicopter for obvious reasons.
Or just leave it on the bus for maximum diversionary effect at minimum cost, if they really are spotting "unauthorised phones". The depth of authoritarianism required to think to have a system of approval for the movements of individual phones in order to enable this fatuous 'security' system, doesn't bear thinking about.
Great marketing opportunities in Burma, China and Iran tho'.
....but it can't beat sneaky.
I'm not especially clever and I'm not particularly sneaky, but after 5 seconds of thinking about this I realised that all a 'baddy' needs to do is buy a pre-loaded PAYG mobile from e-bay. If they have a plan, all they need to do is turn them on at known intervals for quick mutual status checks then move away after they've finished talking. Terrorists would most likely strike at public areas, where there are hundreds of people with 'unauthorised' mobile phones, not much use there then. If they sneak into what is obviously a 'private' area, they could turn their phones off first.
Even if the authorities manage to note that these phones are being used for something 'bad' (and how would they do that?), the worst they can do is contact the network operator and have them cut off. A check of the account holder would trace back to the poor bugger who sold them on e-bay.
Please tell me, how is this system supposed to be any good for anything useful?
Surely a target as rich as the Olympic venues is worthy of a one way mission followed rewarded by numerous virgins and a place in paradise? No mobile required to trigger a suicide vest surely?
This seems just a way to introduce more intrusive tracking into the UK for abuse by the state and its various tentacles.
With 30 to 50 metres you will have false positives all over the place.
"but officer, i was just walking my dog next to this canal here."
~~
"Whats that? This 40 foot blue fence?"
~~
"N..No, officer, I..I"
*sound of handcuffs clicking...*
BB, because although he is watching, he is not watching close enough.
...used this icon in this article yet? :)
But as others have said, you need your mobile turned on for the tracking system to work. So all you need to circumvent the system is to scout out the area beforehand, then mug someone for their mobile in a CCTV blackspot, before dumping the phone in the nearest bin. Of course you'll be wearing gloves during the process, so you don't get any of your DNA on the phone...
...like most of the knee-jerk reactionary stuff that this government gets stuck into, it's completely useless on anyone who really wants to commit a terrorist act. This will, however, be very useful in tracking the majority of citizens, just like ID cards, CCTV, IMP...... should I go on?!
the technology probably just detects a phone in a bad area and then singlas an alarm, rather than actually WHO you are. Spoofing an authorised phone ID would be more effective, no phone is effectiver.
Jamming is also an issue, or modulating phone IDs (so insterad ofone phone moving they'd see different phones randomly appearing for a second, this issue could be circumvented if the system alarmed as soon as it detected any phone, althought htat might cause issues, if it watches a phone for X seconds then alarms - hopping would work.
Alternatively, hire security instead of paying thrice as much for easily foilable tech widgets.
"Its technology can be used to erect virtual "geo fences", which will alert security staff when an unauthorised mobile phone enters a protected site and track it, typically with an accuracy of 30 to 50 metres."
So a crowd of protesters, each with a cell phone, at the boundary of a restricted area will create a distributed denial of service by causing false positives :-)
Because if they have any sense they will love this.
Operative A goes in and lobs mobile over fence into restricted area, then walks on == security alert and lots of the thugs in blue running to the area.
Operative B hangs around on other side of site, waits till all the security run off to deal with the alert then plants bomb while everyone is destracted.
Buy phone.
Phone plenty of dodgy mates. Attend BNP meetings or radical mosques or anti-Government demos (as appropriate). Make sure phone is on when doing so. Get onto watchlist.
Buy ticket to big event in main Olympic stadium. Make sure your seat is in the middle of the crowd.
Go to event. Turn on phone.
Tracking accuracy is within 30-50 metres. You are in the middle of thousands of people.
What are the Authorities going to do? Evacuate the stadium? Or pray that you're bluffing?
For added effect, get together with a few mates. Get seats spaced all around the stadium, and all turn on your phones at the same time.
Paris, of course, because she needs this to keep track of her phone.
I think commentards here missed the point. The aim is not to track people individually, or to flag them or whatever (at least not yet), but to detect if *anyone* bearing a mobe entered a place where *no-one* is supposed to go (except maybe John from security, but we have his number so we won't let the dogs out on him). It's part of the assumption that, of course, everyone owns one or several cell phones (and has one or several e-mail addresses, too). When signing up on some companies' website I have to enter my land line number as a cell phone number because I just can't go on without that. And I get strange looks from the customs "officers" each time I enter the US: they now *demand* that you provide a cell phone number *and* an e-mail address (funnily enough, the field for the e-mail addy is so small that anything longer than john@gmail.com won't fit.).
At least this time I'm good. Yes, replace every security fence and every single rent-a-cop with this tech, please. Absolute freedom here I come (that is, until I get "caught" out without a cell phone, and sent directly to Gitmo as I'm obviously planning to eradicate mankind: why else would I leave my home without a cell phone or five?).
And how do you think they can detect a mobe that is switched off ?
When they are on, sure they keep transmitting junk at regular intervals. No problem to snoop on those.
I suppose that at very short range it may be possible to detect some of the tuned circuits but you'd probably need a rather large field to induce anything detectable in them.
A mobe with no battery is going to be pretty damn hard to detect.
For the usual reasons.
The authorities in the UK seem to think that the only people who will offend are known offenders. It's like the way they are always surprised that somebody working with children turns out to be a PDF file even though the CRB check showed up nothing, does it never occur to them that every offender has to commit a first offence and every offender has to be caught for the first time? So there will be people out there who may want to disrupt the games who are totally unknown to the authorities.
If I happened to be up to no good then I would be inclined to buy a new PAYT mobile regularly. And only carry a mobile when it was absolutely necessary. Any miscreants who were too stupid to think of this will have been alerted by the fact that these plans have been publicised.
Epic fail. As usual.
"Civil servants have held meetings with TruePosition, a US mobile location firm trying to break into the UK telecoms market."
Rather than a project to protect the law-abiding ctizens of this fair land, it smacks more of soon-to-be ex-civil servants, looking for a seat on the board for helping win a licence-to-print -money contract from the good old UK taxpayer.
Paris - cos she knows where her phone's been
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