Homeland Security Finds Evidence of Cellular Surveillance Targeting White House

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has revealed that there are pieces of evidence of cellular phone surveillance targeting Washington, D.C. facilities, including the U.S. president’s official residence.

The National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD), an agency under the DHS, implemented a pilot project where they installed sensors to find any surveillance activity targeting mobile devices being used around Washington, D.C. The project was particularly aimed at understanding International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers deployed in the area.

NPPD’s pilot project ran from January to November 2017, according to a letter from Christopher Krebs, undersecretary of NPPD, to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore) dated May 22. The said test confirmed the existence of “anomalous activity” akin to that of IMSI catchers which can be used “to monitor and track cellular communications and devices.”

Meanwhile, NPPD’s pilot project was not able to link the IMSI catcher activities “to specific entities, devices, or purposes” due to their limited authority on counterintelligence. But other agencies with the said jurisdiction conducted further investigations, which later indicated that “some detected signals were emanated from legitimate cell towers.”

Krebs’s letter also tackled files that Wyden had requested to be released to the public. But the DHS deemed them “not appropriate for public release.” Krebs then said that what their agency could confirm were reports from third parties about the illegal use of IMSI catchers and that “nefarious actors may have exploited” the Signaling System Seven (SS7) mobile networks' vulnerability.

As a response to NPPD’s letter, Wyden issued a statement, where he said, “I’ve spent the past year fighting to reveal what a terrible job the telephone companies and (Federal Communications Commission) are doing at protecting Americans from being spied on, tracked, or scammed. This letter is yet more evidence that these threats are absolutely real and they are already attacking Americans.”

Wyden added that the DHS report on the possible use of IMSI catchers by foreign entities raises more concern considering allegations that President Donald Trump “isn’t even using a secure phone to protect his calls.”