Immigration nabs 18 Chinese - smart car and "Cellebrite" tech used

 

Picture: Naew Na

 

Naew Na reported that 18 Chinese nationals were arrested trying to sneak into Thailand over the Maekhong River from Laos into Chiang Saen, Chiang Rai. 

 

Immigration not only utilized technology on one of their now famous BMW "smart cars" but also had "Cellebrite" technology at their disposal that was used to intercept mobile phone messages. 

 

None of the Chinese had travel documents and admitted trying to enter the kingdom illegally in a boat they had hired from the Laotian side. 

 

Picture: Naew Na

 

The river police also aided immigration in the arrests.

 

Cellebrite is an Israeli Digital Intelligence company that manufactures data extraction, transfer and analysis devices for cellular phones and mobile devices, according to information online, notes Thaivisa.  

 

Source: Naew Na

 

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44 minutes ago, webfact said:

Immigration not only utilized technology on one of their now famous BMW "smart cars"

I take it the smart car drives itself to the crime scene, having previously filtered out all the suspect data on it own.

Why else would anyone need a smart car - except for the hard-of-learning posing in a BMW?

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Cellebrite

This has caused controversy when used by some law enforcement in the West with accusations of unauthorized use and data theft .. 

There is also speculation that it was this that was used recently in Britain to enable the mass co-ordinated raids on organised crime crim's using the encrypted Encrochat message platform that was previously thought unbreakable .. 

But the implications of it on lawful civil liberties are obvious and a cause for concern for everyone .. 

7 minutes ago, Justgrazing said:

The implications of this on civil liberties are obvious and a cause for concern for everyone ..

 

Well....not quite....everyone. Civil liberty concerns are limited to those countries that actually….have…civil liberties.

 

 

 

1 minute ago, Hayduke said:

 

Well....not quite....everyone.

 

 

Indeed .. it is the ordinary folk who should be concerned that this is being used .. but yes no doubt there will be some sufficiently connected who will escape it's gaze ..

You know it's serious when the red tip is deployed to the end of the pointing stick and acts as a smart divining rod picking out criminals at will ???? 

1 hour ago, Hayduke said:

 

Well....not quite....everyone. Civil liberty concerns are limited to those countries that actually….have…civil liberties.

 

 

 

Therefor Isreal can use it, civil liberty my a***

2 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Why else would anyone need a smart car

Perhaps it's smarter than them. 

And here is the smart BMW making the interception on the Mekhong:

 

9 minutes ago, Phuketshrew said:

And here is the smart BMW making the interception on the Mekhong:

 

Will they be using it later to float the Thai Baht?

3 hours ago, webfact said:

None of the Chinese had travel documents

As a favoured nation they expected Visas on Arrival......????

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Immigration nabs 18 Chinese - smart car and "Cellebrite" tech used

So, In essence they used a laptop and a smart phone in car, which makes the car smart, but not the operator?

7 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Immigration nabs 18 Chinese - smart car and "Cellebrite" tech used

So, In essence they used a laptop and a smart phone in car, which makes the car smart, but not the operator?

Sometimes it's the details left out that are more telling.

Unemployed casino workers from the Laos "Las Vegas" opposite Chiang Saen????

3 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

But the implications of it on lawful civil liberties are obvious and a cause for concern for everyone .. 

using mobile networks at all should be a security concern for everyone, as SMS/calls interception setup cost just about $300 (and smart Israeli guys sell it for millions LOL)

 

https://www.firstpoint-mg.com/blog/ss7-attack-guide/

 

https://positive-tech.com/research/ss7-network-security-analysis-2020/

4 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

with accusations of unauthorized use and data theft .. 

That's not a problem here, they have authorisation ????

16 minutes ago, ukrules said:

That's not a problem here, they have authorisation ????

Yes unfortunately that is the case .. 

1 hour ago, fdsa said:

using mobile networks at all should be a security concern for everyone, as SMS/calls interception setup cost just about $300 (and smart Israeli guys sell it for millions LOL)

 

https://www.firstpoint-mg.com/blog/ss7-attack-guide/

 

https://positive-tech.com/research/ss7-network-security-analysis-2020/

I read the first link and understood some of the highly technical language used but not a lot of it. If what I did understand is correct - calls and SMS texts on a mobile are not secure. Indeed, I have never considered my mobile phone as 'secure' and therefore for example, I will not install a banking application on it.

 

However, we are told that messaging applications such as Whatsapp and LINE use 'end to end' encryption and are therefore, secure.  Is that not true then?

 

(Please reply in non-technical language)

16 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

I read the first link and understood some of the highly technical language used but not a lot of it. If what I did understand is correct - calls and SMS texts on a mobile are not secure. Indeed, I have never considered my mobile phone as 'secure' and therefore for example, I will not install a banking application on it.

 

However, we are told that messaging applications such as Whatsapp and LINE use 'end to end' encryption and are therefore, secure.  Is that not true then?

 

(Please reply in non-technical language)

The mobile network is insecure by design - this is how international roaming works. If your mobile operator allows international roaming then any rogue african provider can announce your number in any country and intercept your SMS/calls.

 

WhatsAPP, LINE, Telegram, etc, just only claim that they use end-to-end encryption but it is impossible to verify because their program code is hidden. So to be safe it is better to assume that they are not secure and never send anything really private thru them.

 

If you want something really secure - there are Element (former Riot) messenger, which is still new and thus unstable, and Jabber protocol, which is old and industrial standard (in fact WhatsApp and Zoom use Jabber as underlying protocol), but Jabber does not support sending files and video calls well.