Chinese Tracking Devices in Commercial Products
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Chinese Tracking Devices in Commercial Products
So what other devices are they in, and exported to whom?
https://inews.co.uk/news/hidden-chin...curity-2070152
Hidden Chinese tracking device ‘found in UK Government car’ sparks national security fears
EXCLUSIVE
At least one SIM card capable of transmitting location data was discovered in a sweep of government and diplomatic vehicles which uncovered ‘disturbing things’, a serving security source confirmed
A hidden Chinese tracking device was found in a UK Government car after intelligence officials stripped back vehicles in response to growing concerns over spyware, i has been told.
At least one SIM card capable of transmitting location data was discovered in a sweep of Government and diplomatic vehicles which uncovered “disturbing things”, a serving security source confirmed.
The geolocating device had been placed into a vehicle inside a sealed part imported from a supplier in China and installed by the vehicle manufacturer, according to the source…..
Cars have been “dismantled surgically down to the last nut and bolt” by intelligence workers and “rather disturbing things” have been found, the officer said.…
Geolocating devices are able to be placed into vehicles without the knowledge of the manufacturers after being concealed inside sealed parts from suppliers in China, according to the serving security source.
Electronic Control Units (ECUs), which are responsible for the smooth operation of a vehicle’s engine and predominantly sought from China, are embedded with SIM cards before being sent to car manufacturers as sealed units, according to a serving security source.
The manufacturers fit the parts in cars without opening them because of various warranty and commercial agreements, the serving security source said.….
https://inews.co.uk/news/hidden-chin...curity-2070152
Hidden Chinese tracking device ‘found in UK Government car’ sparks national security fears
EXCLUSIVE
At least one SIM card capable of transmitting location data was discovered in a sweep of government and diplomatic vehicles which uncovered ‘disturbing things’, a serving security source confirmed
A hidden Chinese tracking device was found in a UK Government car after intelligence officials stripped back vehicles in response to growing concerns over spyware, i has been told.
At least one SIM card capable of transmitting location data was discovered in a sweep of Government and diplomatic vehicles which uncovered “disturbing things”, a serving security source confirmed.
The geolocating device had been placed into a vehicle inside a sealed part imported from a supplier in China and installed by the vehicle manufacturer, according to the source…..
Cars have been “dismantled surgically down to the last nut and bolt” by intelligence workers and “rather disturbing things” have been found, the officer said.…
Geolocating devices are able to be placed into vehicles without the knowledge of the manufacturers after being concealed inside sealed parts from suppliers in China, according to the serving security source.
Electronic Control Units (ECUs), which are responsible for the smooth operation of a vehicle’s engine and predominantly sought from China, are embedded with SIM cards before being sent to car manufacturers as sealed units, according to a serving security source.
The manufacturers fit the parts in cars without opening them because of various warranty and commercial agreements, the serving security source said.….
Personally I'd assume that a decent "sweep" on any one important would find 2x US, 2 x Russian, 1x Chinese, France and Israel, 3 X UK (MI5, MI 6 and GCHQ) and 1x the Sun and the Daily mail
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Is this just a logical extension of the Chinese spying stuff that's been found in other products? There have been several stories in recent years about stuff built in to exported Chinese-made telecoms equipment.
The Chinese government own familiar sounding car brands like MG and Volvo, cars full of complex tech. I'm just surprised that it has taken so long for this to make the news. My assumption would be that any country where the government owns or controls large scale electronic goods manufacture has to be suspected of using that control of manufacturing to aid intelligence gathering. They would be stupid not to, from their perspective. If our government owned and controlled a large electronics manufacturing capability then I'm 100% sure they would do the same.
The Chinese government own familiar sounding car brands like MG and Volvo, cars full of complex tech. I'm just surprised that it has taken so long for this to make the news. My assumption would be that any country where the government owns or controls large scale electronic goods manufacture has to be suspected of using that control of manufacturing to aid intelligence gathering. They would be stupid not to, from their perspective. If our government owned and controlled a large electronics manufacturing capability then I'm 100% sure they would do the same.
So what are they achieving - how do they know at the time of manufacture where the sim card will end up? Presumably at the time of ordering the manufacturers aren't going "this is for our special government and diplomatic vehicles range"?
Many new cars are already permanently connected to networks. We've been looking at getting a new car for a few months and every one we've seen has built-in connectivity. Not even sure they have SIM cards as such, now. The car we are looking at seriously has some sort of built-in SIM card functionality to connect to the mobile network. The brochure says it will stay connected anywhere there is a mobile signal, not just in the UK. Must be easy, technically, to hide data packets destined for purposes other than just the basic car functionality and telemetry into such a system.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Out of interest, wouldn't use of the SIM require it to be registered with one of the mobile networks ?
The Jerusalem Post story on barring pilots wiith foreign passports I quoted on the F-35 thread contains a story related to this thread:
Meanwhile, in an unrelated develpment, US government officials recently reached out to the IDF and expressed concern about the fact that the Israeli military has cars made in China that are used by IDF officers.
The US expressed worries that Chinese cars with advanced multimedia systems could tag sensitive information from IDF officers' cellphones and store them in a Cloud network for Chinese intelligence.
However, a compromise was found on this issue, with sensitive information being transferred to a protected and secure Israeli Cloud system.
The US expressed worries that Chinese cars with advanced multimedia systems could tag sensitive information from IDF officers' cellphones and store them in a Cloud network for Chinese intelligence.
However, a compromise was found on this issue, with sensitive information being transferred to a protected and secure Israeli Cloud system.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
and then a quick RF sweep in a lab would reveal the presence of transmissions, 'cos they can't do their job of communicating by staying silent!
Not just expensive cars now. All the small hatchbacks we've been looking at are connected to the internet via the equivalent of a built in SIM (I think SIM may be the wrong term, in most cases it seems they use some sort of hard-wired equivalent that can be re-programmed OTA). A key selling point for a lot of cars now is that they come with apps to allow added functionality. This implies they are always connected to the internet via the mobile network, even when the car is not running and is parked and locked.
I've also found that there are some groups of people hacking the connectivity of cars for a host of reasons, from just providing apps that are better than the manufacturer's official ones to some darker purposes, like tracking cars. A lot of electronics is now made in China, by state owned or state controlled companies, so car manufacturers may not even be aware of what's inside some of the kit they are building in.
Many new cars are already permanently connected to networks. We've been looking at getting a new car for a few months and every one we've seen has built-in connectivity. Not even sure they have SIM cards as such, now. The car we are looking at seriously has some sort of built-in SIM card functionality to connect to the mobile network. The brochure says it will stay connected anywhere there is a mobile signal, not just in the UK. Must be easy, technically, to hide data packets destined for purposes other than just the basic car functionality and telemetry into such a system.
To provide tracking information you need firstly a geolocation device and secondly a transmission medium. If a SIM card is used at all it is simply an interface between the two.
Devices containing all these parts are available for surveillance purposes as a package to be temporarily attached to a vehicle. For routine use in production vehicles such a device is unnecessary as all the components are already built in. It would be a simple matter to program the car's data controller to send ID and location data to the undercover destination in addition to its normal functions.
My car came fitted with a GPS and it knows where I am all the time I'm driving. It also receives regular updates on traffic jams...it maybe be transmitting back for all I know!
The info we've collected about a few new cars over the past couple of months shows that almost all of them transmit and receive data via the mobile/cell phone network. I believe that the way the traffic jam data is collected is by tracking as many cars as possible (all those with built in connectivity) and then looking at their speed. If large numbers of cars all start to slow down at the same spot then that's a good indicator that there is congestion there, so the networks can then relay that back to all other connected cars to warn them about it. The implication is that all connected cars are tracked all the time.
The info we've collected about a few new cars over the past couple of months shows that almost all of them transmit and receive data via the mobile/cell phone network. I believe that the way the traffic jam data is collected is by tracking as many cars as possible (all those with built in connectivity) and then looking at their speed. If large numbers of cars all start to slow down at the same spot then that's a good indicator that there is congestion there, so the networks can then relay that back to all other connected cars to warn them about it. The implication is that all connected cars are tracked all the time.
Traffic monitoring may use data transmitted from cars but my understanding was that the likes of google maps used data from phones as it is likely to more freely available to them due to the high percentage of people with either their browser or mapping software being installed on phones.
My local Polizei website.... https://www.suffolk.police.uk/traffic-updates
Enabled by..... https://inrix.com
Yes. The article is seriously confused. A SIM card on its own is a dumb device. To hide one on its own somewhere in a car would be pointless. And a SIM card has no way in itself of knowing its location.
To provide tracking information you need firstly a geolocation device and secondly a transmission medium. If a SIM card is used at all it is simply an interface between the two.
Devices containing all these parts are available for surveillance purposes as a package to be temporarily attached to a vehicle. For routine use in production vehicles such a device is unnecessary as all the components are already built in. It would be a simple matter to program the car's data controller to send ID and location data to the undercover destination in addition to its normal functions.
To provide tracking information you need firstly a geolocation device and secondly a transmission medium. If a SIM card is used at all it is simply an interface between the two.
Devices containing all these parts are available for surveillance purposes as a package to be temporarily attached to a vehicle. For routine use in production vehicles such a device is unnecessary as all the components are already built in. It would be a simple matter to program the car's data controller to send ID and location data to the undercover destination in addition to its normal functions.
I’m always amazed at the number of people that don’t realise it’s a two way thing.
by receiving the speeds of cars they map the traffic movement / traffic jams that they tell you about.
This also leads to everyone avoiding the jam, and the jam getting smaller. It’s a brilliant feedback loop.