Oh, I think you're assuming I'm more skeptical than I am. I believe they have one or more Stingrays on site. It would be silly to assume they don't, given the history of use of Stringrays at protests.
I also suspect the number of active cell phones on the networks in that area is probably a hundred times higher than usual; there's probably enough cell traffic happening there to saturate the current capacity many times over. This can lead to cell phones dying faster than usual (searching for signal), cell phones coming online and off, failing to send large files, etc. It can look like "jamming", even when there is no nefarious activity actually happening.
So, I'm not trying to argue nefarious shit isn't going down. I have absolute confidence it is; I know too much about our nation's history with protestors to think otherwise. I don't know that airplanes are carrying the Stingrays (or other cell phone hacking devices) or WiFi honeypots. I don't know that all of the unsecured networks are honeypots put up by law enforcement. etc. I'm saying the specifics of their assessment may be wrong, not that the hacking and spying isn't happening. It's picking nits, in some regards.
But, the motivations of law enforcement are sometimes misinterpreted by protestors, and the capabilities of law enforcement are sometimes over-estimated, even by people that understand the technical side of things. Law enforcement does shady stuff all the time, particularly in dealing with protestors, but, local police also don't have particularly strong technical teams. If the FBI is involved, then things get murkier. They have the resources and the expertise to do probably more than the worst thing we can imagine them doing (and possibly the will, as well).
But, to be clear: I support the protestors, and think that the abuses they've endured in all of this have been criminal. Indigenous peoples in the US have been treated like garbage from the very beginning, and it continues today; this very reservation has been shrunk and unilaterally "renegotiated" (sometimes with guns) multiple times due to profit motives. The reservation has been shrunk on behalf of gold miners, and for major river re-routing, flooding, and damming projects. Even if these folks were making huge and unreasonable demands (which they aren't) I would still support them.
I'd like to see a more thorough investigation of what's actually happening, by someone with a bit more expertise than Cracked. Wireshark dumps are great, but that's just the beginning of an exploit post-mortem.
I also suspect the number of active cell phones on the networks in that area is probably a hundred times higher than usual; there's probably enough cell traffic happening there to saturate the current capacity many times over. This can lead to cell phones dying faster than usual (searching for signal), cell phones coming online and off, failing to send large files, etc. It can look like "jamming", even when there is no nefarious activity actually happening.
So, I'm not trying to argue nefarious shit isn't going down. I have absolute confidence it is; I know too much about our nation's history with protestors to think otherwise. I don't know that airplanes are carrying the Stingrays (or other cell phone hacking devices) or WiFi honeypots. I don't know that all of the unsecured networks are honeypots put up by law enforcement. etc. I'm saying the specifics of their assessment may be wrong, not that the hacking and spying isn't happening. It's picking nits, in some regards.
But, the motivations of law enforcement are sometimes misinterpreted by protestors, and the capabilities of law enforcement are sometimes over-estimated, even by people that understand the technical side of things. Law enforcement does shady stuff all the time, particularly in dealing with protestors, but, local police also don't have particularly strong technical teams. If the FBI is involved, then things get murkier. They have the resources and the expertise to do probably more than the worst thing we can imagine them doing (and possibly the will, as well).
But, to be clear: I support the protestors, and think that the abuses they've endured in all of this have been criminal. Indigenous peoples in the US have been treated like garbage from the very beginning, and it continues today; this very reservation has been shrunk and unilaterally "renegotiated" (sometimes with guns) multiple times due to profit motives. The reservation has been shrunk on behalf of gold miners, and for major river re-routing, flooding, and damming projects. Even if these folks were making huge and unreasonable demands (which they aren't) I would still support them.
I'd like to see a more thorough investigation of what's actually happening, by someone with a bit more expertise than Cracked. Wireshark dumps are great, but that's just the beginning of an exploit post-mortem.