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Chuck Darwin<p>Not <a href="https://c.im/tags/SantaBarbara" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SantaBarbara</span></a>'s <br>Ray Hunter</p><p><a href="https://www.waterhousegallery.com/Ray%20Hunter.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">waterhousegallery.com/Ray%20Hu</span><span class="invisible">nter.html</span></a></p><p> <a href="https://c.im/tags/CSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CSS</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Stingrays" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Stingrays</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/catchers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>catchers</span></a></p>
Chuck Darwin<p>Meet Rayhunter: <br>A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying</p><p>At EFF we spend a lot of time thinking about Street Level Surveillance technologies<br>—the technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life<br>—such as automated license plate readers, <br>facial recognition, <br>surveillance camera networks, <br>and cell-site simulators (. <a href="https://c.im/tags/CSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CSS</span></a> ). </p><p>Rayhunter is a new open source tool we’ve created that runs off an affordable mobile hotspot that we hope empowers everyone, <br>regardless of technical skill, <br>to help search out CSS around the world. </p><p>CSS<br> (also known as <a href="https://c.im/tags/Stingrays" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Stingrays</span></a> or <a href="https://c.im/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/catchers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>catchers</span></a>) <br>are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, <br>tricking phones within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower. </p><p>CSS operate by conducting a general search of all cell phones within the device’s radius. </p><p>Law enforcement use CSS to pinpoint the location of phones <br>often with greater accuracy than other techniques such as cell site location information (CSLI) <br>and without needing to involve the phone company at all. </p><p>CSS can also log International Mobile Subscriber Identifiers (IMSI numbers) unique to each SIM card, <br>or hardware serial numbers (IMEIs) of all of the mobile devices within a given area. </p><p>Some CSS may have advanced features allowing law enforcement to intercept communications in some circumstances.</p><p>What makes CSS especially interesting, as compared to other street level surveillance, is that <br>so little is known about how commercial CSS work. </p><p>We don’t fully know what capabilities they have <br>or what exploits in the phone network they take advantage of to ensnare and spy on our phones, though we have some ideas. </p><p>We also know very little about how cell-site simulators are deployed in the US and around the world. </p><p>There is no strong evidence either way about whether CSS are commonly being used in the US to spy on First Amendment protected activities <br>such as protests, communication between journalists and sources, or religious gatherings. </p><p>There is some evidence<br>—much of it circumstantial<br>—that CSS have been used in the US to spy on protests. </p><p>There is also evidence that CSS are used somewhat extensively by US law enforcement, <br>spyware operators, and scammers. </p><p>We know even less about how CSS are being used in other countries, <br>though it's a safe bet that in other countries CSS are also used by law enforcement.</p><p>Much of these gaps in our knowledge are due to a lack of solid, empirical evidence about the function and usage of these devices. </p><p>Police departments are resistant to releasing logs of their use, <br>even when they are kept. </p><p>The companies that manufacture CSS are unwilling to divulge details of how they work. </p><p>Until now, to detect the presence of CSS, researchers and users have had to either rely on Android apps on rooted phones, <br>or sophisticated and expensive software-defined radio rigs. </p><p>Previous solutions have also focused on attacks on the legacy 2G cellular network, which is almost entirely shut down in the U.S. </p><p>Seeking to learn from and improve on previous techniques for CSS detection we have developed a better, cheaper alternative that works natively on the modern 4G network.</p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet</span><span class="invisible">-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying</span></a></p>
𝙳𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝙵𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚠𝚛𝚊𝚙<p><a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a> <a href="https://infosec.exchange/tags/Cellphones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cellphones</span></a> </p><p>"CSS (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. </p><p>"EFF's 'Rayhunter' works by intercepting, storing, and analyzing the control traffic (but not user traffic, such as web requests) between the mobile hotspot Rayhunter runs on and the cell tower to which it’s connected.</p><p>"Rayhunter works on a readily-available U$20 device.</p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet</span><span class="invisible">-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying</span></a></p>
PrivacyDigest<p>Meet <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Rayhunter" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Rayhunter</span></a>: A New <a href="https://mas.to/tags/OpenSource" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>OpenSource</span></a> Tool from <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.social/@eff" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@<span>eff</span></a></span> to Detect Cellular <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Spying" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Spying</span></a> <br> <br><a href="https://mas.to/tags/CSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CSS</span></a> (also known as <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Stingrays" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Stingrays</span></a> or <a href="https://mas.to/tags/IMSIcatchers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSIcatchers</span></a>) are devices that masquerade as legitimate cell-phone towers, tricking <a href="https://mas.to/tags/phones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>phones</span></a> within a certain radius into connecting to the device rather than a tower. <br><a href="https://mas.to/tags/privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>privacy</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/security" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>security</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/imsi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>imsi</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/cellphones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cellphones</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/celltower" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>celltower</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03/meet</span><span class="invisible">-rayhunter-new-open-source-tool-eff-detect-cellular-spying</span></a></p>
PrivacyDigest<p>Backyard <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Privacy</span></a> in the Age of <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Drones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Drones</span></a> </p><p>In addition to high-resolution photographic and video cameras, police drones may be equipped with myriad <a href="https://mas.to/tags/spying" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>spying</span></a> payloads, such as live-video transmitters, thermal imaging, heat sensors, mapping technology, automated license plate readers, cell site simulators, cell phone signal interceptors and other technologies.<br><a href="https://mas.to/tags/alpr" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>alpr</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/imsi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>imsi</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/stingray" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stingray</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/backyard-privacy-age-drones" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2024/08/back</span><span class="invisible">yard-privacy-age-drones</span></a></p>
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻‍💻🧬<p><a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/eBay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>eBay</span></a> Removes Listing for <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/StingRay" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>StingRay</span></a> <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Cellphone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cellphone</span></a> <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Spying" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Spying</span></a> Tech<br>StingRay listed at $100,000 before being removed for violating the platform’s policy on not <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a> equipment. Listed as “Harris Stingray Cellular Phone Surveillance w/ Power Cord &amp; Rolling Case - USED.<br>This StingRay may not be able to spy on modern phones. StingRays, and more broadly <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a>-catchers, of which StingRay is a specific model, have been used by <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/lawenforcement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lawenforcement</span></a> in <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/US" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>US</span></a> to track cell phones.<br><a href="https://www.404media.co/ebay-removes-listing-for-stingray-cellphone-spying-tech/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">404media.co/ebay-removes-listi</span><span class="invisible">ng-for-stingray-cellphone-spying-tech/</span></a></p>
Benjamin Carr, Ph.D. 👨🏻‍💻🧬<p>The Next Generation of <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/Cell" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Cell</span></a>-Site Simulators (CSS) is Here. Here’s What We Know.<br>CSS, also known as <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a> catchers, are among <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/lawenforcement" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>lawenforcement</span></a>’s most closely-guarded secret <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a> tools. They act like real <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/cellphone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cellphone</span></a> towers, “tricking” mobile devices into connecting to them, designed to intercept the information that <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/phones" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>phones</span></a> send and receive, like the location of the user and metadata for <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/phone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>phone</span></a> calls, text messages, and other app traffic. <br><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/next-generation-cell-site-simulators-here-heres-what-we-know" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/next</span><span class="invisible">-generation-cell-site-simulators-here-heres-what-we-know</span></a> <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>privacy</span></a> <a href="https://hachyderm.io/tags/EFF" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>EFF</span></a></p>
Chuck Darwin<p>Cell Site Simulators ( <a href="https://c.im/tags/CSS" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CSS</span></a> ), also known as <a href="https://c.im/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a> catchers, <br>are among law enforcement’s most closely-guarded secret surveillance tools. </p><p>They act like real cell phone towers, <br>🔸“tricking” mobile devices into connecting to them, <br>🔸designed to intercept the information that phones send and receive, <br>🔸like the location of the user and metadata for phone calls, text messages, and other app traffic. </p><p>CSS are highly invasive and are used covertly. </p><p>In the past, law enforcement used a technique called <br>“parallel construction”<br>—collecting evidence in a different way to reach&nbsp;an existing&nbsp;conclusion <br>💥in order to avoid disclosing how law enforcement originally collected it💥<br>—. 👉to&nbsp;circumvent public disclosure of&nbsp;location findings made through CSS. 👈</p><p>This technology is like a dragging fishing net, rather than a focused single hook in the water. </p><p>Every phone in the vicinity connects with the device; <br>🔥even people completely unrelated to an investigation get wrapped up in the surveillance. 🔥</p><p>CSS, like other surveillance technologies, subjects civilians to widespread data collection, <br>even those who have not been involved with a crime, <br>and has been used against protestors and other protected groups, undermining their civil liberties. </p><p>⭐️Their adoption should require public disclosure, <br>⭐️but this rarely occurs.</p><p>In Massachusetts, agencies are expected to get a <a href="https://c.im/tags/warrant" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>warrant</span></a> before conducting any cell-based location tracking. <br>The City of Boston is known to own a CSS.&nbsp;</p><p>Dozens of policing agencies are currently using cell-site simulators (CSS) by <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jacobs" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jacobs</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Technology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Technology</span></a> and its Engineering Integration Group (EIG), according to newly-available documents on how that company provides CSS capabilities to local law enforcement. </p><p>A proposal document from Jacobs Technology, <br>provided to the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and first spotted by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ), <br>outlines elements of the company’s CSS services, which include discreet integration of the CSS system into a Chevrolet Silverado and lifetime technical support .</p><p>The proposal document from Jacobs provides some of the most comprehensive information about modern CSS that the public has had access to in years. </p><p>It confirms that law enforcement has access to CSS<br>♦️capable of operating on 5G <br>♦️as well as older cellular standards. </p><p>It also gives us our first look at modern CSS hardware. </p><p>The Jacobs system runs on at least nine software-defined radios that simulate cellular network protocols on multiple frequencies<br> and can also gather <a href="https://c.im/tags/wifi" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wifi</span></a> intelligence. </p><p>As these documents describe, these CSS are meant to be concealed within a common vehicle. </p><p>Antennas are hidden under a false roof so nothing can be seen outside the vehicles, <br>which is a shift from the more visible antennas and cargo van-sized deployments we’ve seen before. </p><p>The system also comes with a TRACHEA2+ and JUGULAR2+ for 🔹direction finding and 🔹mobile direction finding. </p><p>Important to the MSP contract is the modification of a Chevrolet Silverado with the CSS system. </p><p>This includes both the surreptitious installment of the CSS hardware into the truck and the integration of its software user interface into the navigational system of the vehicle. </p><p>According to Jacobs, this is the kind of installation with which they have a lot of experience.</p><p>Jacobs has built its CSS project on military and intelligence community relationships, <br>which are now informing development of a tool used in domestic communities, <br>not foreign warzones. </p><p><a href="https://c.im/tags/Harris" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Harris</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Corporation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Corporation</span></a>, later <a href="https://c.im/tags/L3Harris" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>L3Harris</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Technologies" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Technologies</span></a>, Inc., <br>was the largest provider of CSS technology to domestic law enforcement <br>but stopped selling to non-federal agencies in 2020. </p><p>Once Harris stopped selling to local law enforcement the market was open to several competitors, <br>one of the largest of which was <a href="https://c.im/tags/KeyW" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>KeyW</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Corporation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Corporation</span></a>. </p><p>Following👉 Jacobs’s 2019 acquisition of The KeyW Corporation 👈and its Engineering Integration Group (EIG), <br>Jacobs is now a leading provider of CSS to police, <br>and it claims to have <br>🌟more than 300 current CSS deployments globally. 🌟</p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/next-generation-cell-site-simulators-here-heres-what-we-know" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/next</span><span class="invisible">-generation-cell-site-simulators-here-heres-what-we-know</span></a></p>
PrivacyDigest<p>The Next Generation of Cell-Site Simulators is Here. Here’s What We Know.</p><p>CSS, also known as <a href="https://mas.to/tags/IMSI" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IMSI</span></a> catchers, are among law enforcement’s most closely-guarded secret <a href="https://mas.to/tags/surveillance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>surveillance</span></a> tools. They act like real cell phone towers, “tricking” mobile devices into connecting to them<br><a href="https://mas.to/tags/privacy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>privacy</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/celltower" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>celltower</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/cellphone" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cellphone</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/cellsitesimulator" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cellsitesimulator</span></a></p><p><a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/next-generation-cell-site-simulators-here-heres-what-we-know" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/next</span><span class="invisible">-generation-cell-site-simulators-here-heres-what-we-know</span></a></p>