[liberationtech] [berkmanfriends] AFP on Senate circumvention funding report to release Tuesday

[Jacob Appelbaum]

On 02/13/2011 10:16 PM, Sasha Costanza-Chock wrote:
> You know what internet censorship circumvention technology friends in
> Tunis and Egypt were asking me for when the net was taken mostly down?
> Satellite cell phones.
> 

I've been running some tests on BGAN devices. The main goal is to have a
real understanding of the privacy, security, and possibly anonymity
solutions when terrestrial networks are destroyed, filtered or worse.

There are some very serious security and privacy concerns - most devices
send your GPS coordinates when registering with the satellite system.
This is done to ensure that the downlink activates the correct spot
beam; one serious unintended consequence is that you have absolutely no
location anonymity. It's also completely affordable to monitor the
downstream data sent from the satellite constellation with only a few
hundred US dollars worth of equipment. Nothing very specialized, just
off the shelf hardware and software.

All the best,
Jacob