The Surveillance Empire That Tracked World Leaders, a Vatican Enemy, and Maybe You
"Inside the hidden world of First Wap, whose untraceable tech has targeted politicians, journalists, celebrities, and activists around the globe."
#Altamides
I see a great marketing opportunity for specialist stationers (hello @elzbethmrgn) to promote the security features of their communications tools that are untrackable, have 99.9% uptime, and are unlikely to be taken out by falling space junk.
This #Secret #Tech #Tracked World #Leaders, a Vatican Enemy, and Maybe You #MotherJones #privacy #security #yt #altamides #LighthouseReports #GabrielGeiger #FirstWap
This was new to me! #altamides is a "service" that seems to have been able to track mobiles nilly willy.
https://www.lighthousereports.com/investigation/surveillance-secrets/
@ZDF berichtet: Ein Datensatz und Undercover-Recherchen legen nahe: Mit Software einer Sicherheitsfirma unter deutsch-österreichischer Führung wurden jahrelang Tausende Handys geortet - weltweit.
https://www.zdfheute.de/politik/handy-ueberwachung-ortung-first-wap-100.html
#ueberwachung #chatkontrolle #datenschutz #palantir #altamides #deutschland #oesterreich #mobilfunk #tracking #spyware #nospy
This Secret Tech Tracked World Leaders, a Vatican Enemy, and Maybe You. #surveillance #malware #mobilesecurity #privacy #altamides #zeroday #zeroclick
"Operating from their base in Jakarta, where permissive export laws have allowed their surveillance business to flourish, First Wap’s European founders and executives have quietly built a phone-tracking empire, with a footprint extending from the Vatican to the Middle East to Silicon Valley.
It calls its proprietary system Altamides, which it describes in promotional materials as “a unified platform to covertly locate the whereabouts of single or multiple suspects in real-time, to detect movement patterns, and to detect whether suspects are in close vicinity with each other.”
Altamides leaves no trace on the phones it targets, unlike spyware such as Pegasus. Nor does it require a target to click on a malicious link or show any of the telltale signs (such as overheating or a short battery life) of remote monitoring.
Its secret is shrewd use of the antiquated telecom language Signaling System No. 7, known as SS7, that phone carriers use to route calls and text messages. Any entity with SS7 access can send queries requesting information about which cell tower a phone subscriber is nearest to, an essential first step to sending a text message or making a call to that subscriber. But First Wap’s technology uses SS7 to zero in on phone numbers and trace the location of their users.
First Wap emphasizes that its technology is used by law enforcement to “fight against organized crime, terrorism and corruption.” It sells Altamides directly, as well as through third-party resellers."
#CyberSecurity #Surveillance #FirstWap #Altamides #SS7 #Privacy #LocationData
“Dubiose Geschäfte einer Überwachungsfirma
Ein Unternehmen vermarktet ein Spionagesystem, mit dem sich Handys orten lassen. Eine Recherche zeigt, dass es massenhaft eingesetzt wurde, um Enthüllungsjournalisten… auszuspähen” @spiegel.de -Recherche www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/u... #Altamides #firstwap
(S+) Tracking von Politikern u...
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