Some phone apps claim they can detect stingrays and other cell site simulators, but most produce wrong results.īut now researchers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have discovered a new technique that can detect Hailstorm devices.Įnter the EFF’s latest project, dubbed “Crocodile Hunter” - named after Australian nature conservationist Steve Irwin who was killed by a stingray’s barb in 2006 - helps detect cell site simulators and decodes nearby 4G signals to determine if a cell tower is legitimate or not.Įvery time your phone connects to the 4G network, it runs through a checklist - known as a handshake - to make sure that the phone is allowed to connect to the network. Newer cell site simulators, called “Hailstorm” devices, take advantage of similar flaws in 4G that let police snoop on newer phones and devices. Most of those flaws are fixed in the newer, faster and more secure 4G networks, though not all. But what we do know is that stingrays exploit flaws in the way that cell phones connect to 2G cell networks. and sold exclusively to police and law enforcement, stingrays are covered under strict nondisclosure agreements that prevent police from discussing how the technology works. Little is known about stingrays, because they are deliberately shrouded in secrecy. Police secretly deploy stingrays hundreds of times a year across the United States, often capturing the data on innocent bystanders in the process. Security researchers say they have developed a new technique to detect modern cell-site simulators.Ĭell site simulators, known as “stingrays,” impersonate cell towers and can capture information about any phone in its range - including in some cases calls, messages and data.
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