Samsung, Nokia say they don’t know how to track a powered-down phone

Re:Samsung, Nokia say they don’t know how to track a powered... by andyjohnson0 on Tuesday November 12, 2013 @05:56AM (#6717028)

"Back in July 2013, The Washington Post reported that nearly a decade ago, the National Security Agency developed a new technique that allowed spooks to “find cellphones even when they were turned off."

Since this technique pre-dates smartphones, it is unlikely to involve installing software on the phone. At best, the NSA might have found that a given model of phone didn't properly power-down its radio when the phone was powered-down. Given access to the cellular network it might be possible to ping the phone and make it disclose its position via triangulation.

Very hard to see how this could be anything other than deliberate disinformation by the NSA though.

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Re:Samsung, Nokia say they don’t know how to track a powered... by Zigurd on Sunday November 17, 2013 @11:48PM (#6752607)

A remote command capability was revealed in the trial of a mob boss. The FBI used a non-smartphone as a room bug. A reasonable surmise is that the phone can be commanded to periodically power on and listen for commands. Those commands could include turning on the speakerphone, jacking up the agc, and auto-answering without indicating the phone is on.

Turning on periodically so it can be tracked would be one part of what it takes to implement a room bug.

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