[Cryptography] Bizarre behavior of a non-smart mobile phone

[J.M. Porup]

On Sun, May 14, 2017 at 12:37:24AM -0700, Ray Dillinger wrote:
> We can wonder why the firmware, drivers, or device is bad, but
> I can't think of any reason why anyone benefits from this behavior
> so I doubt that it's a deliberate act unless the motive is pure
> malice.  Malice does not usually suffice to motivate something as
> complicated as that behavior [...]

Malice motivated GCHQ's dirty tricks unit, JTRIG, to engage in similar
cell phone shenanigans.

According to the Snowden docs, dirty tricks "effects" ops have become
a major part of the GCHQ's activities, including:

        BURLESQUE "is the capabiltiy to send spoofed SMS text messages."

        CANNONBALL "is the capability to send repeated text messages to a
        single target."

        IMPERIAL BARGE "For connecting two target phone together in a call."

        and many more [0]

Their motive is pure malice:

        Change the photos on their social networking sites...you have
        been warned "JTRIG is about!!"
        Can take paranoia to a whole new level [1]

The documents I quote are from 2012, and we may be sure that the
malice cultivated by GCHQ has only gotten more evil--and that similar
capabilities have emerged at spy agencies elsewhere around the world.

Jumping to the conclusion that all possible cell phone malfunction is
a JTRIG op would of course be foolish, but it would be equally foolish
to stick our heads in the sand and pretend such malice does not exist
in the world.

jmp

sources:
[0] https://theintercept.com/document/2014/07/14/jtrig-tools-techniques/
[1] http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/snowden_cyber_offensive1_nbc_document.pdf

--
J.M. Porup
www.JMPorup.com