Stingray
Stingray is a secret (or used to be super secret) device developed by the Harris Corporation in Florida that is used to provide man-in-the-middle capabilities to Mobile phones. It is able to inject firmware to existing phones (carrier update?) which then can be used to surveil the data traffic between the phone and the cell tower.
It acts as a cell tower on its own. A similar device is FemToCell which also allows a hacker to intercept cell traffic. Apparently there's a new version of this device which has been renamed. I'm sure Harris Corporation is disturbed by the wide use of the name Stingray which in the past has been kept secret contractually with law enforcement.
Using Federal Grants, the Department of Homeland Security funded the purchase of these units for many big cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The problem with Stingray is that this is surveillance that has been performed without a warrant. This is now being tested in courts but it is a capability that has no checks and balances. The excuse given is that we have no expectation of privacy for anything deemed to be metadata. Which apparently is all data other than your voice.
During the Water rights protests in Standing Rock North Dakota, the Electronic Frontier Foundation cited behavior that was consistent with the government's use of Stingray to invade or perhaps intimidate the rights of protesters by intercepting their data traffic in social media.
This is clearly an instance when government laws have not kept up with technology. In this data age, our data is being labeled as free for all 'meta data'. Don't expect to be granted any privacy rights for any data flow on the Internet. According to our US Supreme Court, there is no expectation of privacy for something we willingly share.
Stingray who has it
Stingray Defined
Femtocell
Stingray is a secret (or used to be super secret) device developed by the Harris Corporation in Florida that is used to provide man-in-the-middle capabilities to Mobile phones. It is able to inject firmware to existing phones (carrier update?) which then can be used to surveil the data traffic between the phone and the cell tower.
It acts as a cell tower on its own. A similar device is FemToCell which also allows a hacker to intercept cell traffic. Apparently there's a new version of this device which has been renamed. I'm sure Harris Corporation is disturbed by the wide use of the name Stingray which in the past has been kept secret contractually with law enforcement.
Using Federal Grants, the Department of Homeland Security funded the purchase of these units for many big cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
The problem with Stingray is that this is surveillance that has been performed without a warrant. This is now being tested in courts but it is a capability that has no checks and balances. The excuse given is that we have no expectation of privacy for anything deemed to be metadata. Which apparently is all data other than your voice.
During the Water rights protests in Standing Rock North Dakota, the Electronic Frontier Foundation cited behavior that was consistent with the government's use of Stingray to invade or perhaps intimidate the rights of protesters by intercepting their data traffic in social media.
This is clearly an instance when government laws have not kept up with technology. In this data age, our data is being labeled as free for all 'meta data'. Don't expect to be granted any privacy rights for any data flow on the Internet. According to our US Supreme Court, there is no expectation of privacy for something we willingly share.
Can they hack into your phone?
Stingray who has it
Stingray Defined
Femtocell
Bytz VPN - with Built-in TOR Routing
