[Itpolicy-np] CIA money behind Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS)

[Bipin Gautam]

(Source : http://qbit.cc/cia-money-behind-wi-fi-positioning-system-wps/ )

How amazing would it be if you could walk into McTaco King and order
that mid-morning bacon taco meal with Mountain Dew Big Gulp from your
mobile device?  Just imagine… as you approach the restaurant, a menu
pops up on your screen, the phone makes suggestions and helps you
super-size your order, before you even set foot in the restaurant!

Is there anything the IPad won't do?

This advertiser’s wet dream is about to become reality, thanks to WPS
(Wi-Fi Positioning System) infrastructure pioneered by CIA front
company Skyhook (formerly Quarterscope) and currently being
implemented by several other intelligence-connected companies,
including Google, Apple, and Navizon (which is supplying data to
Microsoft).

WPS geolocates wireless network devices using a database of known
wireless access points, such as in coffee shops.  Since at least 2004,
WPS companies like Skyhook and Google have been war-driving for access
point data.  More about the technical aspects of this later.

How did you conclude that Skyhook is an intelligence front company?

Follow the money.

In 2008 former CIA director George Tenet became Managing Director of
Allen & Company, an investment bank that provided funding for
Skyhook’s WPS development and Google’s IPO (Initial Public Offering)
in 2004, while he was still director of the CIA.

Skyhook was also funded by shadowy investment firm Alliance Capital.
Frank Savage, Alliance Capital’s former board chairman, also served on
the board of Lockheed Martin and Enron. Alliance was Enron’s largest
shareholder.

Regardless of where the seed money came from, you can now buy this WPS
data commercially.  Intelligence agencies are putting a lot of effort
into developing new tracking and identification technologies.  Once
they turn these technologies loose on society, the corporations
exploit them, resulting in even more personal data being exchanged on
private networks, which intelligence agencies can snoop on at will
with their NSA Internet vacuum cleaners.

What exactly is WPS and how does it work?

Nearly every modern network connected device (phone, computer network
card, cable modem, wireless router, bluetooth headset, etc), has a
unique number called a MAC address (Media Access Control, not Apple)
built in.

Please note that even if a mobile device doesn’t obtain an IP address
when connecting to wi-fi, merely conducting a normal SSID (Session ID)
scan can result in exchanging MAC addresses with access points.
Wireless devices scan for access points automatically, if you leave
the default settings, resulting in the mobile obtaining the MAC addres
of the access point and potentially revealing its own MAC, depending
on the type of scan.

MAC addresses are embedded in beacon frames, which are part of the
hardware link between wireless devices.  Under exactly what
circumstances would MAC address be transmitted by the mobile during a
SSID scan, rather than scanning passively?  I don’t know, but we’ll
put that idea on the back burner for now.

Here is the relevant thing you need to know about them: they are
unique and can identify any network connected device, wired or
wireless, bluetooth, 802.11, etc.  The good news is you can change a
device’s MAC address.†  The bad news is, that doesn’t really matter
because that new number can be immediately correlated with your voice
print and other biometric signatures in realtime by the mobile device
(see Iphone trojan link below)

WPS is not generally used alone for geolocation. Hybrid systems
including GPS and cell triangulation are more commonly used to
geolocate. the advantage of adding WPS is that you can be located
anywhere there’s a known wi-fi, such as inside buildings. and you can
be triangulated more accurately than cell + GPS using a large number
of access points.  How often have you been in an urban setting and
seen 10 or 20 or more access points in the list?  If the exact
location of those access points are known, they can all be used
together to triangulate the mobile more precisely.

So my phone trades MAC addresses with a restaurant’s Wi-Fi. They show
me the daily specials.   Aren’t there potential benefits to something
like this?

Yes, there are many potential benefits to advertisers, law
enforcement, and intelligence agencies who want to track masses of
people.  WPS is going to dovetail beautifully with the NSA’s Main Core
and Apple’s new biometric Iphone trojan.

The only potential benefit to you is that you will not have to speak
to the person behind the counter and your latté will be ready faster.

Intelligence agencies and DARPA are creating an AI surveillance cloud
right before our eyes.  Don’t think that because you don’t have an
Iphone means the 3 people sitting around you haven’t had their trojans
activated to identify your voice print and snoop on your conversation.

We already know how this ends.  You better not be reading qbit.cc
either or you’re going on their shit list!

† But why is it that on Apple OSX 10.4 you can’t change the MAC
address of your wireless card even as root?  It simply fails with no
error and keeps the original MAC address.  I will find the answer to
this question.