Two systems, apparently designed for use on captured phones, are touted as having the ability to extract media files, address books, and notes, and one can retrieve deleted text messages.Ībove all, the catalogue represents a trove of details on surveillance devices developed for military and intelligence purposes but increasingly used by law enforcement agencies to spy on people and convict them of crimes. The mass shooting earlier this month in San Bernardino, California, which President Barack Obama has called “an act of terrorism,” prompted calls for state and local police forces to beef up their counterterrorism capabilities, a process that has historically involved adapting military technologies to civilian use. Most can be used to geolocate people, but the documents indicate that some have more advanced capabilities, like eavesdropping on calls and spying on SMS messages. (The original is here.)Ī few of the devices can house a “target list” of as many as 10,000 unique phone identifiers. The Intercept obtained the catalogue from a source within the intelligence community concerned about the militarization of domestic law enforcement.

Within the catalogue, the NSA is listed as the vendor of one device, while another was developed for use by the CIA, and another was developed for a special forces requirement. Nearly a third of the entries focus on equipment that seems to have never been described in public before. They have names like Cyberhawk, Yellowstone, Blackfin, Maximus, Cyclone, and Spartacus.

Some are designed to be used at static locations, while others can be discreetly carried by an individual. The catalogue includes details on the Stingray, a well-known brand of surveillance gear, as well as Boeing “dirt boxes” and dozens of more obscure devices that can be mounted on vehicles, drones, and piloted aircraft. The document, thick with previously undisclosed information, also offers rare insight into the spying capabilities of federal law enforcement and local police inside the United States. government catalogue of dozens of cellphone surveillance devices used by the military and by intelligence agencies. T HE INTERCEPT HAS OBTAINED a secret, internal U.S.

Government battery spy