The frequent and documented reporting by the media (newspapers, radio and television, blogs, sites, etc.) of permanent and continuous violations of the privacy of communications, both for fixed and mobile services and for internet services, seems to be developing into a great nightmare for high-ranking figures (politicians, businessmen, canal chiefs, shipowners, industrialists, etc.) as well as for ordinary Greek citizens.
The violation of privacy for any communication (fixed, mobile, internet) occurs in two ways. The first way concerns the lifting of the privacy of specific persons by a prosecutor's order, in which case we are talking about the legal lifting of privacy, and the second concerns the violation, that is, the monitoring and interception of communications, arbitrarily, without a prosecutor's order and without the will of those involved.
The first method is done in consultation with state services (EYP, EL.AS., Anti-Terrorism) with the competent prosecutorial authorities and the respective provider to which the target belongs.
Most providers cooperate with OTE, whose network and facilities they use. These same services, as has been revealed many times, exceed the limits of legal lifting and become instruments for surveillance of politicians and other high-ranking individuals, sometimes without a prosecutorial order and other times covered behind prosecutorial orders which they either violate or arbitrarily expand, serving political goals and economic interests.
The arbitrariness of the EYP is well known, and not only in the surveillance of groups of citizens without reason, which is regularly revealed. In essence, we are talking not about a legal, but rather a seemingly legitimate lifting of the confidentiality of communications.
The second method concerns the uncontrolled and completely arbitrary process of monitoring and recording communications of political figures (prime ministers, party leaders, ministers, members of parliament, etc.), publishers, businessmen, trade unionists, etc., but also unsuspecting citizens by state agencies, by the providers themselves or by third-party centers with the tolerance of the providers, since they themselves provide them with the doors, i.e. the keys to the software for the surveillance.
The remote access that telecommunications companies provide to supplier-manufacturer companies, for troubleshooting and software corrections, and even paying significant amounts for it, as has been written many times in the press and denounced by trade union groups, are backdoors for the violation of communications privacy. The incident with Vodafone is irrefutable confirmation that, as it was revealed, the manufacturer of the eavesdropping software, Ericsson, was able to enter and exit the digital centers of Vodafone and OTE through remote access.
Vodafone's digital centers were infected with the surveillance software before and during the Olympic Games and, paradoxically, the infection remained after the Olympic Games, uncontrolled, with the full tolerance of the company's managers who knew and collaborated, covering up the illegality, unknown to this day on whose behalf, until Vodafone engineer Tsalikidis accidentally discovered it.
A similar case of active operation of remote access by suppliers was also revealed at OTE with the leak of a confidential document that proves it and mentions the possibility of malicious acts on the OTE network.
Many countries such as England, France, etc. do not use remote access citing reasons of security of the telecommunications network and confidentiality of communications.
In Greece, providers, and especially OTE, are not interested in such things and leave the suppliers, who are also the manufacturers of the interception software, to thresh on their networks.
Of course, there are also the petty scheming eavesdroppers, commonly called bugs, who illegally and arbitrarily engage in monitoring personal and other data and who are helped by people through telecommunications companies for a fee.
But beyond these, there are also international monitors, who, as our big brothers, make sure to keep an eye on us by recording and monitoring our conversations, our electronic messages, and everything else provided by telecommunications services.
There have been recent revelations that Germany is monitoring Greeks and 195 other target countries through the DE-CIX super hub located in Frankfurt, through which surveillance data is remotely diverted and recorded at the headquarters of the BND (German Secret Intelligence Service) in Pulag, near Munich.
Is it a coincidence that the same place is also home to the monitoring center set up by Deutsche Telekom, for Germans and not just citizens, and which today owns the Greek OTE, with the blessings of Alogoskoufis-Vourloumis and the New Democracy party?
For the record, we mention that on 14/4/2008, Spiegel magazine had mentioned, among other things, the wiretapping software that Siemens was selling to intelligence services around the world. Specifically, it wrote that: This technology and its support via computers and remote access were the “backdoor” for “sniffing” information from foreign services and channeling it to the BND.
These were the words of former BND chief August Hanning, later minister, describing how Siemens, through remote access, was scouring the secret service archives in collaboration with DT.
How do you know you're being watched?
Today in Greece, surveillance concerns fixed communications, internet and mobile. The greatest focus is on mobile communications, due to the constant use of mobile phones in our daily activities, but also on internet and less on fixed communications.
In fixed communications, interception can be done via a transmitter (cob), via a PC from the digital door, via a parallel device from the network access point.
These are easily detectable methods, except for recording from a digital door, which is not perceived and is only detected by the digital center that recorded it.
On mobile phones, the methods of monitoring are: Trapped via additional software (spy phone application), which is currently introduced by sending a painless SMS and which contains a coded bug. Trapped via micro-construction (hardware e-circuit).
Special custom-made or commercial designs that pre-exist or are imported into the mobile phone.
Signal interception (over the air & man in the middle attacks).
It is the most common for politicians and other individuals, it is done primarily by government agencies, EYP, etc., with the full cooperation of mobile phone companies, but it is also done by many other centers that only the providers know about.
In this case, the eavesdropper or eavesdroppers should be at a relatively close distance and especially within cities at a few dozen meters, in vans or other means.
The keys to the monitoring software are provided by the mobile communications companies themselves or by the manufacturers of the digital centers.
The indications for monitoring
The indications that lead a user to the conclusion that they are being monitored are the following:
When the detailed bill sent to him by the mobile phone company notices double charges.
The monitoring software notifies the person being monitored every time the target receives a call and he, the monitor, chooses whether to record it.
In this way, a message is charged to the target's phone.
If the target sends a message and the monitor wants to record it, then the message will be charged twice.
Rapid battery consumption.
With the monitoring software, the bug has the ability to activate the phone and even turn it into a microphone, without the target's knowledge, who thinks he is quiet when his phone is turned off.
While you are talking to your interlocutor, you hear your voice with a certain delay, as if there is sound returning to your earpiece.
The abrupt termination of conversations usually in a short time after the connection is restored
. Hearing strange noises during calls.
In mobile phones there are no cables for damage and accidental interference or other non-existent explanations that companies give for reasons of disorientation.
From the mobile phone you only make outgoing calls and you cannot receive incoming ones.
When on the other end of the communication instead of your phone number comes out, the word “privacy” comes out.
The mobile phone battery is hot even when it is not in use.
Source: tro-ma-ktiko.blogspot.gr
