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5 October 2015 UK

Edward Snowden interview:'Smartphones can be taken over'By Peter TaylorBBC News

Smartphone users can do "very little" to stop security

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Edward Snowden interview: 'Smartphones can be taken over' -... http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-34444233

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services getting "total control" over their devices, USwhistleblower Edward Snowden has said.

The former intelligence contractor told the BBC's Panorama thatUK intelligence agency GCHQ had the power to hack into phoneswithout their owners' knowledge.

Mr Snowden said GCHQ could gain access to a handset bysending it an encrypted text message and use it for such things astaking pictures and listening in.

The UK government declined to comment.

'Nosey Smurf'

Edward Snowden says government phone-hacking capabilities were "named afterSmurfs"

Mr Snowden spoke to Panorama in Moscow, where he fled in 2013after leaking to the media details of extensive internet and phonesurveillance by his former employer, the US National SecurityAgency (NSA).

He did not suggest that either GCHQ or the NSA were interested


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in mass-monitoring of citizens' private communications but saidboth agencies had invested heavily in technology allowing them tohack smartphones. "They want to own your phone instead of you,"he said.

Mr Snowden talked about GCHQ's "Smurf Suite", a collection ofsecret intercept capabilities individually named after the little blueimps of Belgian cartoon fame.

"Dreamy Smurf is the power management tool which meansturning your phone on and off without you knowing," he said.

"Nosey Smurf is the 'hot mic' tool. For example if it's in yourpocket, [GCHQ] can turn the microphone on and listen toeverything that's going on around you - even if your phone isswitched off because they've got the other tools for turning it on.

"Tracker Smurf is a geo-location tool which allows [GCHQ] tofollow you with a greater precision than you would get from thetypical triangulation of cellphone towers."

Peter Taylor's film Edward Snowden: Spies and the Law alsocovers:

The contentious relationship between the British governmentand social media companies. The intelligence agencies and thepolice want the companies to co-operate in detecting terroristcontent but the programme learns that not all companies areprepared to co-operate to the extent that the agencies wouldlike.

Documents leaked by Mr Snowden that appear to show that theUK government acquired vast amounts of communications datafrom inside Pakistan by secretly hacking into routersmanufactured by the US company, Cisco.

'Necessary and proportionate'


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Mr Snowden also referred to a tool known as Paronoid Smurf.

"It's a self-protection tool that's used to armour [GCHQ's]manipulation of your phone. For example, if you wanted to take thephone in to get it serviced because you saw something strangegoing on or you suspected something was wrong, it makes it muchmore difficult for any technician to realise that anything's goneamiss."

Once GCHQ had gained access to a user's handset, Mr Snowdensaid the agency would be able to see "who you call, what you'vetexted, the things you've browsed, the list of your contacts, theplaces you've been, the wireless networks that your phone isassociated with.

"And they can do much more. They can photograph you".

Mr Snowden also explained that the SMS message sent by theagency to gain access to the phone would pass unnoticed by thehandset's owner.

"It's called an 'exploit'," he said. "That's a specially craftedmessage that's texted to your number like any other text messagebut when it arrives at your phone it's hidden from you. It doesn'tdisplay. You paid for it [the phone] but whoever controls thesoftware owns the phone."

Gchq


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GCHQ is the UK government's digital spy agency

Describing the relationship between GCHQ and its US counterpart,he said: "GCHQ is to all intents and purposes a subsidiary of theNSA.

"They [the NSA] provide technology, they provide tasking anddirection as to what they [GCHQ] should go after."

The NSA is understood to have a similar programme to the SmurfSuite used by GCHQ on which it is reported to have spent $1bn inresponse to terrorists' increasing use of smartphones.

Mr Snowden said the agencies were targeting those suspected ofinvolvement in terrorism or other serious crimes such aspaedophilia "but to find out who those targets are they've got tocollect mass data".

"They say, and in many cases this is true, that they're not going toread your email, for example, but they can and if they did youwould never know," he said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the UK government said: "It islong-standing policy that we do not comment on intelligencematters.

"All of GCHQ's work is carried out in accordance with a strict legaland policy framework, which ensures that our activities areauthorised, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorousoversight, including from the secretary of state, the interceptionand intelligence services commissioners and the ParliamentaryIntelligence and Security Committee. All our operational processesrigorously support this position."

The government believes Mr Snowden has caused great damage


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to the intelligence agencies' ability to counter threats to nationalsecurity.

Mr Snowden maintains he has acted in the public interest on thegrounds that the surveillance activities revealed in the thousandsof documents he leaked are carried out - in his words - "without ourknowledge, without our consent and without any sort of democraticparticipation".

Watch Peter Taylor's film: Edward Snowden, Spies and the Law onPanorama on BBC One on Monday, 5 October at 20:30 BST orcatch up later online.

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