Edward Snowden Reinstates: GCHQ and NSA are reportedly spying for years airline passengers' calls using GSM mobile phone services in flight according to documents that Edward Snowden had signed and published by Ars.
British company AeroMobile and SitaOnAir are used by dozens of airlines that want to provide in-flight connectivity. Among others: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, και πολλές αραβικές και ασιατικές εταιρείες. Οι επιβάτες μπορούν να συνδεθούν στους GSM servers, οι οποίοι επικοινωνούν στη συνέχεια με δορυφόρους που λειτουργούν από την βρετανική εταιρεία Inmarsat.
"The analysis of the use of GSM in duration of flight can help pinpoint a target's destination—not to mention the other mobile devices (and possibly people) in the same place,” the 2010 NSA memo leaked by Snowden states.
GCHQ and NSA are allegedly intercepting signals sent from satellites to ground stations on the terrestrial GSM network.
According to NSA's presentation, as mentioned above, 2010 was originally limited to flights in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but this surveillance program had prospects to go everywhere.
Ars asked these three companies to respond to their awareness of espionage and whether they are able to improve the safety of their customers, but for the time being they have not received any responses from Inmarsat or AeroMobile.
A spokesman for SitaOnAir told Ars with an email:
The article and documentation you have pointed to makes reference to intercepting the signal passing through a satellite network. THE service SitaOnAir χρησιμοποιεί δορυφόρους Inmarsat για backhaul. Όπως και κάθε πάροχος κινητών δικτύων, σε υποδομές εδάφους και η SitaOnAir παρέχει διάφορα στοιχεία για την protection of security.
Ars also asked the British Information Service GCHQ to comment on the latest revelations, and received the usual routine answer from a service representative:
It is a long-term policy not to comment on information-gathering issues.
In addition, all of GCHQ's work is carried out within a strict legal and policy framework, which ensures that our activities are permitted, necessary and proportionate, and that there is strict oversight, including by the Secretary of State, Commissioners for monitoring intelligence services and the parliamentary intelligence and security committee.
All of our operating procedures strictly support this position. In addition, the UK monitoring regime is fully compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
