SIM cards contain a secret encryption key that is used to encrypt data between the phone and cellphone towers.

The feds would then copy their target’s SIM card data onto a blank SIM card (this presents some challenges, as I explain below), and then put the original SIM card back without their target knowing.

Then they would pop out the SIM card from the phone, a process designed to be easy, since end users often have reasons to replace the card (such as traveling abroad and needing a local SIM card to access the local cellular network, or when switching cellular providers).

First, the feds would need physical access to their target’s phone for example, they could arrest their target at a protest, temporarily confiscating their phone.

This involves duplicating a small chip used by virtually every cellphone to link itself to its owner’s phone number and account this small chip is the subscriber identity module, more commonly known as SIM. Without more details, it’s hard to be entirely sure what type of surveillance was used, but The Nation’s mention of “cell phone cloning” makes me think it was a SIM cloning attack. There are instructions on how to do this below.

Prevent other people from using your SIM card by setting a SIM PIN on your phone.

As much as possible, and especially in the context of activism, use an encrypted messaging app like Signal - and get everyone you work with to use it too - to protect your SMS text messages, texting groups, and voice and video calls.

Here are two simple things you can do to help mitigate this type of threat: Do ordinary people have any hope of defending their privacy and freedom of assembly against threats like this? Put aside for the moment that, if the report is true, federal agents conducted sophisticated electronic surveillance against American protesters, an alarming breach of constitutional rights.

Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department used “a sophisticated cell phone cloning attack-the details of which remain classified-to intercept protesters’ phone communications” in Portland this summer, Ken Klippenstein reported this week in The Nation.

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