Yesterday , when Bryan Seelyshowed me his various Google Maps exploit , he register me more than just dick jokes and simulated businesses . Using these tricks , Seely was also able to adjust up a system that could surreptitiously register headphone vociferation to the FBI and Secret Service . And he in reality did it .
https://gizmodo.com/its-ridiculously-easy-to-troll-google-maps-with-fake-l-1531646581
The premise is simple ; instead of creating fake businesses with stupid name , he created fake location for an FBI office in San Francisco and a Secret Service office in Washington DC , each efficaciously taking the place of its veridical life counterpart . These newfangled locations were identical to their actual - life vis-a-vis — with one significant modification . A new phone number .
I saw this in action . Seely transport me a link to a Google Maps Search interrogation for “ Union chest of investigating near San Francisco , CA . ” There , I ensure two otherwise very listings , and when I shout the one Seely pointed out to me as fake , he was the one who picked up the earphone .
At the meter of this writing , there are still two FBI power listed in San Francisco , very but for two different telephone numbers .
Seely told me that the exploit was not actually in action , and that when it was , the Google Maps entry with the unseasonable phone bit would be the one most prominently displayed . From there , Seely explained , it would be trivial to reroute the phone numeral to the incoming line for the actual FBI office , and either to listen to or even record the calls as they arrive in . I saw no expressed grounds that Seely had done or could do this part , but Valleywag did .
The result would essentially be a very limited tip phone . Any chiseler with the ability to lay out this up would be capable to bug song — but only from people call in in through office ’s main line , and only people who ’d calculate up the number to call on Google Maps .
But also the danger of unexampled scams like this is reasonably much over . Sources at Google have corroborate that many of the exploits Seely used in the first position have been patched up , so the risk of any new DIY tap setups by the same method seems slim to none .
However , Seely swipe these last alternative locations — like the FBI power and the Internet Cock Advisory — just before the security holes he was using were closed . And , while Seely has demonstrated that he can still modify that locating he ’s already made , he ca n’t create new unity with the same tricks . Still , he ’s been able to demonstrate that this was possible , it ’s almost impossible to jazz if any setups like this presently exist , have be in the past tense , or have been put to any habit . But the risk of new ones through have sex feat seems to be over .
Even though the background of such taps would have been pretty special and new ones are now impossible , the fact that someone could have effectively bug a subset of calls to any number government activity agencies or any other business concern — through Google Maps , of all places — is pretty scarey nonetheless .
Seely has notified the agency involved and we ’ve reached out to them , as well as to Google , for comment .
Considering that the locations on Google Maps are submitted and aver by drug user , instead of pull from official source , trusting it absolutely for A-one - secluded calls has always been a spoiled idea . So if you see yourself having to call the FBI to rat out your local mob Bos , possibly dig up that phone number from the prescribed web site and then set up a meeting in soul . Google Maps is a ripe reference textile , but it never hurts to three-fold stoppage .
Surveillance
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