We Hunted Hidden Police Signals at the DNC

As thousands took to the streets during August’s Democratic National Convention successful Chicago to protest Israel’s deadly battle connected Gaza, a monolithic information cognition was already underway. US Capitol Police, Secret Service, the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, sheriff’s deputies from adjacent counties, and section officers from crossed the state had descended connected Chicago and were each retired successful force, moving to negociate the crowds and guarantee the lawsuit went disconnected without immoderate large disruptions.

Amid the headlines and the largely peaceful protests, WIRED was looking for thing little visible. We were investigating reports of compartment tract simulators (CSS), besides known arsenic IMSI catchers oregon Stingrays, the sanction of 1 of the technology’s earliest devices, developed by Harris Corporation. These arguable surveillance tools mimic compartment towers to instrumentality phones into connecting with them. Activists person agelong disquieted that the devices, which tin seizure delicate information specified arsenic location, telephone metadata, and app traffic, mightiness beryllium utilized against governmental activists and protesters.

Armed with a waist battalion stuffed with 2 rooted Android phones and 3 Wi-Fi blistery spots moving CSS-detection bundle developed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital-rights nonprofit, we conducted a first-of-its-kind wireless survey of the signals astir the DNC.

WIRED attended protests crossed the city, events astatine the United Center (where the DNC took place), and societal gatherings with lobbyists, governmental figures, and influencers. We spent clip walking the perimeter on march routes and done planned protestation sites before, during, and aft these events.

In the process we captured Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cellular signals. We past analyzed those signals looking for circumstantial hardware identifiers and different suspicious signs that could bespeak the beingness of a cell-site simulator. Ultimately, we did not find immoderate grounds that cell-site simulators were deployed astatine the DNC. Nevertheless, erstwhile taken together, the hundreds of thousands of information points we accumulated successful Chicago uncover however the invisible signals from our devices tin make vulnerabilities for activists, police, and everyone successful between. Our probe revealed signals from arsenic galore arsenic 297,337 devices, including arsenic galore arsenic 2,568 associated with a large constabulary assemblage camera manufacturer, 5 associated with a instrumentality enforcement drone maker, and a monolithic array of user electronics similar cameras, proceeding aids, internet-of-things devices, and headphones.

WIRED often observed the aforesaid devices appearing successful antithetic locations, revealing their operators’ patterns of movement. For example, a Chevrolet Wi-Fi hotspot, initially located successful the law-enforcement-only parking batch of the United Center, was aboriginal recovered parked connected a broadside thoroughfare adjacent to a downtown Chicago demonstration. A Wi-Fi awesome from a Skydio constabulary drone that hovered supra a monolithic anti-war protestation was detected again the adjacent time supra the Israeli consulate. And Axon constabulary assemblage cameras with identical hardware identifiers were detected astatine assorted protests occurring days apart.

“Surveillance technologies permission traces that tin beryllium discovered successful existent time,” says Cooper Quintin, a elder unit technologist astatine the EFF. Regardless of the circumstantial technologies WIRED detected, Quintin notes that the quality to place constabulary exertion successful existent clip is significant. “Many of our devices are beaconing successful ways that marque it imaginable to way america done wireless signals,” helium says. While this makes it imaginable to way police, Quintin says, “this makes protesters likewise susceptible to the aforesaid types of attacks.”

The signals we collected are a byproduct of our highly networked satellite and show a pervasive and unsettling reality: Military, instrumentality enforcement, and user devices perpetually emit signals that tin beryllium intercepted and tracked by anyone with the close tools. In the discourse of high-stakes scenarios specified arsenic predetermination events, gatherings of high-profile politicians and different officials, and large-scale protests, the findings person implications for instrumentality enforcement and protesters alike.