On 11/28/2011 08:46 PM, Brian Conley wrote:

For the most part I expect users will be relying on satphones and not modems, voice calling, SMS, and email are likely the only use cases they might consider.

That is extremely scary. There is off the shelf hardware/software for voice print analysis, recording of data transmitted, SMS archival, etc. Such users should consider this for that use case: http://www.cryptophone.de/en/products/satellite/ If someone elsewhere runs a cryptophone PBX, anyone could call in and call insecure numbers from that PBX: http://www.cryptophone.de/en/products/pbx-integration/ It's not free software but I've used it with some success. Bare satphone usage is Syria is just scary. I'll just say it directly, it's dangerous.

Any thought what the timeframe for radio direction finding might be?

The saying goes "Attacks only get better" and I'm certain that the old adage applies here. There are real time systems for this exact task and they are off the shelf surveillance solutions. When you see them in action it will probably make you physically ill.

I'm also trying to determine whether iridium phones may be any "better" than Inmarsat, and how much better, etc. it's clear thurayas are no longer an acceptable option by any regard.

Iridium phones and Inmarsat phones aren't so different in terms of security, privacy, anonymity, etc. For example: http://www.shoghi.co.in/Thuraya-System,GSM-Interception-System,Voice,Fax-Int... With that said, I think the best device in the world for an impossible job is an Iridium Satellite pager. These things are awesome. They are a receive only satellite pager that uses the Iridium constellation. It works for the entire planet and it's cheap cheap cheap. You can transmit a message to the pager by visiting a web page that works over Tor: http://messaging.iridium.com/faq/ More info here: http://www.satellitephonesdirect.com/iridium_sendamessage.html This is the best device for the job: http://www.highspeedsat.com/motorola-9501.htm This is probably also a reasonable device but I've never used it: http://www.highspeedsat.com/kyocera-sp-66k.php If two people have these pagers and both have access to the net via Tor, it's possible for them to communicate in a way that doesn't leave a trace beyond normal internet/Tor usage. Short of jamming, it's a pretty reasonable way to ensure that messages reach a person but the person isn't exposed beyond their general region. You can select multiple regions too. The Motorola 9501 is a small device and it is easily hidden. You could easily encrypt a Tor bridge IP address for your contacts in Syria and send a new one every hour. All the best, Jake _______________________________________________ liberationtech mailing list liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?" You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator. Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE