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Blasts put mobile phone in terror spotlight

LONDON: In the world of terrorism and counter-surveillance, the mobile phone has become an increasingly deadly weapon on both sides of the conflict.

For extremists, the mobile is a perfect detonator of death. For security forces, it is a key tool for tracking them down.

The need for common rules on keeping phone records was an important topic at a meeting last week of European interior ministers seeking to improve cooperation in the wake of this month’s Madrid train bombs.

“Intercepting mobile communications can be vital for intelligence gathering,” said Peter Yapp, an IT security analyst with London-based consultancy Control Risks Group. Spanish authorities are working on the theory that the Madrid bombers used mobile phones to remotely detonate the explosives that killed 202 people.

Extremist groups such as the IRA and Hamas have used mobiles to set off explosive devices in the past, analysts say. The Madrid bombings, meanwhile, come as security experts have had some luck intercepting mobile phone conversations to round up suspected Al Qaeda operatives.

To jam or not to jam: The death toll in Madrid has police and transport officials throughout Europe bracing for a new wave of urban attacks and has focused attention on the mobile phone.

To the chagrin of phone operators, security-conscious city officials and police could now scupper plans to install mobile phone relay points along subway lines in major cities, analysts said.

And city police forces are expected to look into military style phone-jamming technologies to avoid a repeat of Madrid, the analysts said.

“The chances for communicating on places like the London Underground in the current environment would have to be put back quite a ways now,” said Yapp. Security analysts said that in the near term what is more likely is a wave of airport-style security measures — random bag checks, installation of more surveillance cameras and metal detectors — before investing in high-tech jamming devices. .

“I don’t see how you can take out mobile cells. You would inflict such damage on the social fabric of a neighbourhood, damage international commerce,” said Richard Starnes, an expert in cyber terrorism who works with various international law enforcement agencies. Snoop-proof phone services: Meanwhile, new mobile technologies, such as phones that run on the 3G network, could make it more difficult for security forces to snoop on suspected terror cells.

Text and voice carried over 3G phone networks are more spread out and thus more difficult to intercept. Also, the phones can be programmed with the latest encryption technology to obscure outgoing messages and disguise any information downloaded to the handset.

Pay-as-you-go is another headache for investigators.

By taking out a pay-as-you-go mobile account, users can speak as often as they want with almost complete anonymity as typically there is no requirement to register with a mobile operator.

“Pay-as-you-go is a real security liability,” said Peter Larsson, CEO of Pointsec Mobile Technology AB, a Stockholm-based mobile security specialist firm.

Another complication is that there are major enforcement gaps between mobile networks around the world. For example, a stolen mobile phone transported out of Western Europe may work on another GSM network in East Africa or the Middle East. “That’s where an international agreement is required. Internationally, if you could block a phone, that would have some impact,” said Yapp. —Reuters

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