Cell Phones Are Now Weapons! What You Need To Know To Protect Yourself!
As most of you are aware, cell phones are no longer a safe means of transactions or communication. Thanks to the Snowden revelations, we now understand this is a real threat! But I don't think many people understand just how our phones have been compromised, and what this really means. Unfortunately you now have to look at your cell phone as a potential weapon, because it has been proven that it most certainly can be used as such. In fact many people in the tech community have been feverishly investigating this to understand just how our phones can be used against us with some very shocking discovery's! For example did you know your microphone is always on thanks to Google voice app? Yes it is in fact always recording, even if your not using the app! And even spookier is the fact that Snowden revealed it can even record while the phone is off! Yes and not only that, it can also record video and take pictures, even while turned off!
So what this means is you only have privacy when the battery has been removed, however some phone manufactured like sprint have been found to have small rechargeable batteries in them to still provide power to the phone if the battery is dead or removed! Where this is really used, is to keep the phone linked to the GPS function, so your phone can still give your exact location at any time! And even scarier, I recently discovered not only that, but the battery in most Samsung phones has an antenna hidden under the wrapper! And while they claim this is only for apps like Smart Pay using NFC or near field technology, it is in fact able to transmit a signal on its own using your battery as a power source when removed from your phone! I have tested this myself, and it is a fact! How do I know this you ask? Well I have been in the tech field myself for many years. And after the Snowden revelations I began to do my own research. And needless to say I was horrified by what I have discovered! In fact it is much spookier than you can even imagine, but I am going to try and lay it all out here for you, and share my personal experience with you as well.
Now before you say to yourself, why should I worry, I have nothing to hide. Let me show you what I discovered, and then you can decide if you should or shouldn't worry about it. Now in summery what I found was that anyone including our own government can access our phones without permission, at any time, in real time! Why should this worry you? Well if you should ever find yourself on the wrong side of the"Law", your phone can and will be used against you. And the worst part is that it can be used against you in secret, meaning without the knowledge of the people who are supposed to defend our rights! Like lawyers, judges, congress, and the supreme court just to name a few. For example, were you aware that there are in fact secret courts you are not aware of, which operate outside the "Law" against you! Yes and they are known as FISA courts at least here in the US. So what this means is if you were being investigated lets say for web searches, or suspicious money transactions, you would never know it! And if they decided to convict you, they would use that evidence in secret against you so you couldn't even defend yourself! In fact even if there was a perfectly innocent explanation for your actions, it would not matter. You would still be tried, convicted, and sentenced!
Now that is just a small example of the dangers we face as a whole in this new era of smartphone technology. In fact I have recently through personal experience, discovered some very nefarious ways this technology can be used against us. I have kids, and unfortunately my relationship didn't work out, and the mother of my kids and I parted ways. And as you may know, when this happens, child support usually comes into play. And if you should ever fall behind on your child support, the state has many ways to punish you. Yes punish you for falling behind, even if it was through no fault of your own. This is what happened to me after suffering a severe work injury that left me partially disabled. And as a result, for a period of time I was unable to work. And of course not only did my medical bills start piling up, my child support also started stacking up. And before long I owed alot of money. So the first thing that happened was they suspended my drivers license. Which meant that I could no longer go to work, the grocery store, or any of the many things we use our licenses for. Next they started hitting my bank account, and cleaning it out any time I would manage to get a little money in there. But fortunately after a few times of having this happen, I noticed something very odd. I noticed that they seemed to know exactly when I deposited my money! And so I began doing some research to find out how this could be possible, because at this point I really began to question my sanity.
Now as you probably know, the government can request that the banks turn over your bank account information on your transaction history, and amounts. for any reason. And even though this really should be illegal, it is in fact not. But even though they have this power under the "Law", it seems it would be impossible to see your transactions in real time right? And as far as I know after much research, this is not possible, which put me back to square one. So how did they know exactly when I made a deposit? Well I was stumped for a while, but as I always like to understand how things work, I kept digging. I watched hundreds of tech videos, read thousands of blog posts and articles, and after all of my research without any concrete answers, it finally hit me. The only way this could be possible is if they had my banking login and password information. And they could only get this if they were able to read my mind or they were monitoring me through my phone! And not only that, they couldn't of known when I made my deposit unless they were watching me in real time! Boom that was it! And to my horror I discovered not only were they able to watch me in real time, but also listen to my conversations in real time, and see my location in real time! Yes it was true, my personal banking information was being compromised by my own government to collect child support!
So here I am, not a fugitive of the law, or some super criminal, I haven't killed anyone, yet they are able to treat me as such! In fact there is way more to this story you see, because I hadn't realized exactly how they were achieving this until this happened a few times, and I started putting all the pieces together. You see after all this happened, which led me to do countless hours of research, I discovered they were using a system that not many people are aware of called Stingray. And what Stingray does is allow law enforcement and yes even criminals, to use high tech gear to hack your phone via not only your phones cell towers, but with mobile, and portable hand held units as well! Now these systems are designed by a company called Harris corporation. And the system has been designed to use whats called "Man In The Middle" attacks. And this is much more nefarious because what it really means is that they can hack our phones even without using the cell tower! So essentially there is no record of this attack! And that means they can literally operate complete in secrecy! Which also means they could literally get away with anything from kidnapping to murder, and there would be no record of it!
This is when I realized it was time for me to dig in and try to fully understand how this system works so I could put all the pieces together, and try to understand what exactly was going on. Now the Stingray system uses what is what as known as an IMSI catcher. And what is IMSI? This is the info stored on your phones sim card, that identifies you and your phone to the network. And so when you get on your phone to make a call, send a text, or surf the web, your phone can be identified among all the millions of other phones on the network. And so how the Stingray system works is it can actually trick your phone into thinking it is a cell tower, thus giving the Stingray all of this same info, which is normally only used by your cell phone provider.
So why does this matter? Well most people don't realize that our phones don't just identify us, but any and all information we transmit and receive over them! Our phone calls, pictures, videos, texts, passwords and so on. Now usually all this info is encrypted, however what I discovered is that it can also be un-encrypted by anyone who knows how! And there are in fact many in the tech community who know how! In fact recently watched a hacker on YouTube demonstrate the ability in real time! Here is the link if you would like to see it for yourself - 
So why am I telling you all of this? Because I think everyone has the right to know if there is technology we are told is secure, that is in fact not! And also because it has become apparent that our own governments will do anything to exploit this technology, and use it against us! Meaning that our most sensitive data, pictures, texts, videos, login and password information, can and will be exploited, and used against us. Unfortunately it is a fact that our cell phones have indeed now become weapons. And evidence clearly shows they have been used as such. So my point is please remember this and my story, the next time you use your phone. Because you never know who's watching, and what could happen. Especially because there would be no proof, should it ever be used to harm you!