IMSI Catchers And The Happy Yellow Helicopter: Security Challenges At Standing Rock

Presented at BSidesLV 2017, July 25, 2017, 2:30 p.m. (25 minutes)

Geeks Without Bounds coordinated the Internet connectivity, radio support, and renewable power for the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline protest camps at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota from September 2016 to February 2017. Within hours of arriving at Standing Rock, Lisha Sterling discovered problems with her mobile phone, and that began an investigation into the various ways that cyberwarfare techniques were being used against protesters by a consortium of governmental and private security agencies. This talk includes photos and stories from Standing Rock about physical sabotage, IMSI catchers, airborne surveillance, and mystery devices which drain phone and car batteries instantly, along with lessons learned that can be used in a range of situations where activists face heavy-handed opposition.


Presenters:

  • Lisha Sterling - Executive Director - Geeks Without Bounds
    Lisha Sterling has been supporting open source technology in low resource situations for the past 8 years. Before that she worked as a software developer and systems administrator at the usual string of startups and big tech companies starting in 1993. In 2016 she went to Standing Rock to see if the elders and community leaders there would like assistance with technology and basic infrastructure in the water protector camps (Oceti Sakowin, Sicangu, and Sacred Stone). She ended up spending nearly six months at the camps, leading a tech team that provided Internet services, cell phone boosters, radio programming, solar and wind power, and vital computer and cell phone security assistance.
  • Myron Dewey - Owner - Digital Smoke Signals
    MYRON DEWEY M.A, Founder and owner of Digital Smoke Signals, Dewey is Newe/Numah - Paiute/Shoshone from the Walker River Paiute Tribe, Agui Diccutta Band (Trout Eaters) and Temoke Shoshone. He is a professor, journalist, filmmaker/editor, digital storyteller, historical trauma trainer, drone operator and wireless technology consultant From August-September Myron conducted youth media training workshop, women's drone workshops and Independent media "know your rights" legal workshops. Digital Smoke Signal's goal is to help bridge the digital divide throughout Indian Country and indigenize media & technology through indigenous eyes and cultural core values. (Culture, Reciprocity, Respect and Family).

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