An image of Inmarsat’s “unparalleled broadband experience in the sky.” Source: Inmarsat.com
IN THE TROVE of documents provided by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden is a treasure. It begins with a riddle: “What do the President of Pakistan, a cigar smuggler, an arms dealer, a counterterrorism target, and a combatting proliferation target have in common? They all used their everyday GSM phone during a flight.”
This riddle appeared in 2010 in SIDtoday, the internal newsletter of the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, or SID, and it was classified “top secret.” It announced the emergence of a new field of espionage that had not yet been explored: the interception of data from phone calls made on board civil aircraft. In a separate internal document from a year earlier, the NSA reported that 50,000 people had already used their mobile phones in flight as of December 2008, a figure that rose to 100,000 by February 2009. The NSA attributed the increase to “more planes equipped with in-flight GSM capability, less fear that a plane will crash due to making/receiving a call, not as expensive as people thought.” The sky seemed to belong to the agency.
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More News On American and British Spy Agencies Intercepting Mobile Phone Data On Commercial Flights
U.S. and UK intelligence target airborne phone calls: report -- Reuters
British and Americans spy on in-flight phone calls 'in real time', leaked Snowden files reveal -- The Telegraph
US, UK spies snooped on Air France inflight phone calls, report -- RFI
Snowden leaks reveal GCHQ and NSA have been intercepting mobile phone data on commercial flights -- International Business Times
Government spies can see everything you’re doing with your phone on a plane -- Quartz
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