Software by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that, when linked up with the correct hardware, becomes a Stingray for detecting Stingrays.
GitHub - EFForg/rayhunter: Rust tool to detect cell site simulators on an orbic mobile hotspot
What happened to all the phone apps that made an effort to detect IMSI catchers, like SnoopSnitch, which appears to be abandoned (F-Droid reports some fishy anti-features?).
Probably removed by the respective app stores under pressure from law enforcement agencies. A lot of free “snoop” or network detection apps have been removed or paywalled.
What is the correct hardware?
Any of the 5 or 6 cheap wireless hotspots listed in the link in the article.
Probably should have read the article hahahah. Thanks.
Is there a good one for Canada in specific though? As far as I can tell the Orbic only works in the US, and as a result I'm not sure if I can trust the other devices, even if they're the same ITU region. Would the TP-Link work? The docs suggest it should work in the US as well as Europe.
In case you, like me, were wondering wtf stingrays are (besides a type of fish). This is from their report :
Cell-site simulators, also known as "Stingrays" or IMSI catchers, are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, tricking phones within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower.
Cell-site simulators operate by conducting a general search of all cell phones within the device’s radius, in violation of basic constitutional protections. Law enforcement use cell-site simulators to pinpoint the location of phones with greater accuracy than phone companies. Cell-site simulators can also log IMSI numbers (unique identifying numbers) of all of the mobile devices within a given area.
...
The fact that government agencies are using these devices without the utmost consideration for the privacy and rights of individuals around them is alarming but not surprising. The federal government, and in particular agencies like HSI and ICE, have a dubious and troubling relationship with overbroad collection of private data on individuals.
Wait, people didn't know about StingRays?
They've been around for like a decade now.
But uh, yeah, basically, they're fake/spoof/honeypot cell towers that man-in-the-middle all nearby cell network traffic.
This is how they do the whole... everything dragnet, all the time, basically all cop cruisers have them in them, active all the time, this is why you just don't bring your phone to a protest unless you really know what you're doing.
When someone finds one of these simulators, what would they do?
Based on this link, the proper thing to do should be to report it to the FCC. I am not sure how much Trump's FCC will pay attention to the report, though....
Whatever you do, you shouldn't accidentally spill saltwater on it. That could destroy a very expensive piece of spying equipment, and would be a terrible, tragic accident that could interfere with the advance of nazism.
Report it to your favorite news media ig
Find your anarchist friend with excess radio equipment and let them know.
Fucking cool, and also remember to leave your phone at home, or at least on airplane mode.
Modern phones will still ping the Bluetooth low energy networks like Find My for Apple devices even when off or on airplane mode. That’s how things like AirTags work.
It's been tested at actual protests FYI. It works.
Use your imagination what that means you can do when you find one.
Cool
Here is it working in action while law enforcement is flying a spy plane arouns a neighborhood
https://youtube.com/watch?v=d1tYv2gCd6k&t=483
Damn... I happen to have an Orbic hotspot. I know what I'm doing instead of being productive this week.