With Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman back in India and tensions between India and Pakistan looking to de-escalate, there lies a pertinent question from the February 14 Pulwama attack that triggered the over two-week-long hostilities.
On February 18, reported that the handlers may have used a mobile application called YSMS to contact the Pulwama suicide bomber in an attack that led to the deaths of 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel.
The question: What do services like YSMS bring to the table and why are they so difficult to spot and track?
The device reportedly constitutes a smartphone (with the app installed), paired with a radio set. The radio set has WiFi capabilities, which enables it to connect with the smartphone. The phone, now connected to the radio, can send encrypted messages at very high frequencies (VHF) to devices which are within line-of-sight, courtesy the radio.
Essentially, what makes it difficult to track is that it operates outside of conventional networks. The system does not rely on your average telecom networks due to the absence of a SIM card during the set-up of the entire contraption. The newspaper reports that intelligence officials had intercepted text messages believed to have been sent by the handlers and that the app is a 바카라new version바카라 that operates on a frequency undetected by Indian intelligence since December 2018.
The first report of militants using such technology against Indian forces was in from 2015. The newspaper reported that intelligence officials had solved the puzzle of operatives being caught with phones without SIM cards after interrogating Pakistani militant Sajjad Ahmad in August that year. The Chennai-based reported a year later saying that the Army had failed to crack it and that the Defence Research and Development Organisation may have taken a shot at it too.
Privacy, encryption and subsequent attempts at decryption have been longstanding debates. Apps like YSMS and the supporting technology have at least been around since 2012 on the Dark Web. During Hurricane Sandy (2012), cell phones were rendered ineffective without mobile towers until the breakthrough to use them in this way. Understandably, it can be quite a pain for agencies tracking unfavourable elements that are outside your average grid.
Even encryption is not something new to militants. A by Robert Graham for Combating Terrorism Center spoke of Al-Qaeda using such tools as far back as 2007.
바카라Outside of natural disasters the most common use case I have heard of is during protests,바카라 Tarun Wadhwa, entrepreneur and Visiting Instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, told Outlook.
Wadhwa said that it isn바카라t an issue of 바카라difficult-to-hack encryption바카라 and that there are many such systems that work on 바카라mesh바카라 networks -- 바카라where data is transmitted from one point to another.바카라 He added that similar concepts will most likely be used 바카라for connecting people and devices to the internet.바카라
Outlook also reached out to NASSCOM, the IT trade body within the country, which said that it is in 바카라process of developing a narrative around the same바카라 and that it wouldn바카라t be able to comment on it.
How difficult is it though to go about trying to intercept such messages in the first place?
바카라As far as intercepting the messages, I don바카라t know specifically here but I would think it is possible to shut down the radio frequency, spoof the WiFi network, or hack into the phones themselves to capture screen and keyboard movements,바카라 Wadhwa said.
While referring to 바카라spoofing바카라 WiFi networks, Wadhwa also referred to debates surrounding the use of technology which may be used to intercept communication from such apps, appropriately named 바카라Stingray바카라.
In 2013, reported that state agencies in the United States were using Stringray as 바카라clandestine mobile phone surveillance equipment.바카라 The devices were known to be able to track phone movements, intercept communication and perform denial-of-service (DOS) attack. The American Civil Liberties Union called Stingrays a 바카라바카라 in a blog a year earlier.
In mid-2016, an appeals court in Maryland rebuked the authorities for using Stingray, it expected 바카라that people have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in real-time cell phone location information.바카라
While such technology may not be what Indian agencies use, it could only be a matter of time, for it and for subsequent debates around privacy, when looked at through the prism of national security.
