Budapest has faced EU scrutiny over the use of spyware against the opposition and civil society in past years.
Members of the European Parliament were offered special pouches to protect digital devices from espionage and tampering for a visit to Hungary this week, a sign of rising spying fears within Europe.
Five lawmakers from the Parliament’s civil liberties committee traveled to Hungary on Monday for a three-day visit to inspect the EU member country’s progress on democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
One lawmaker on the trip confirmed to POLITICO that the Parliament officials joining the delegation were offered Faraday bags — special metal-lined pouches that block electromagnetic signals — by the Parliament’s services and were also advised to be cautious about using public Wi-Fi networks or charging facilities.
Jesus. Any phone is a huge security liability. Cant be that hard to issue them with some decent burners. Anyway. Hungary can just buy the I formation from the 378 app that they voluntarily installed.
Don’t they have to take it out of the pouch if they want to use the phone in Hungary?
I wonder if those protect from the Israeli spyware Hungary has been buying.
Most of the Israeli spyware infects using zero days in messaging apps such as WhatsApp or the default SMS apps. So when you take the phone out of the bag you’ll still receive your missed messages, which would contain the exploit.
Fake phone towers are used to catch calls and textmessages in real time so it doesn’t protect against that either.
These bags only protect against exploits in the call/sms/wifi/bluetooth protocols as long as they are in the bag. Which you can also just protect yourself against using hardware toggles, and in some cases even software toggles.
They’ll definitely protect against real time attacks and fake cell towers as long as your phone stays in the bag while you’re in potentially hostile territory. Silent SMS or SMS from outside that might be spiked with malware by the local government won’t work if you’re outside.
Faraday cages don’t protect against specific malware. They block electromagnetic radiation or communication in general. The idea is to keep your phone inside as long as you are in a potentionally compromised net.
They should have basic flip phones for travel. Sadly most of us should now, especially protesters. Faraday pouches are easily opened and by law enforcement.
yea its better to use a burner phone, with none of your personal data in it.
How the fuck does a faraday cage do anything when the US can use existing backdoors on your physical device via USB to access your data these people are fucking buffoons
because they are worried about sneaky invisible attacks through wireless connections, and not about being detained. we don’t really have borders in the direction of other EU members
Wouldn’t it be easier just to circle Hungary with anti-spying barbed wire and anti-tampering minefields?
