Ride the Lightning

The Burner Phones Used by the Terrorists in Paris – Brussels Too?

March 24, 2016

The Apple vs. FBI fight over "back doors" has gotten more interesting with the revelation by the International Business Times via The New York Times that the ISIS terrorists who killed 130 people and injured hundreds more in Paris last year used disposable, untraceable "burner" phones. They activated their burner phones shortly before carrying out attacks throughout Paris, avoiding detection by police and intelligence agencies.

As Snowden commented "Phones used in real-world ops are disposed on a per-action, per-call basis. Lifetimes of minutes, hours. Not days."

As always, the terrorists – and technology – are way ahead of law enforcement, which is limping to catch up and still making foolish arguments about needing back doors, which all the experts agree are bad for everyone.

So were burner phones used in Brussels? I haven't heard – yet – but I'm betting the answer is yes.

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