Electronic surveillance

How 5G could prevent Stingray-style surveillance and keep business travelers safer

Unknown individuals or groups are operating IMSI catchers—otherwise popularly known as Stingrays, after the popular model sold by defense contractor Harris Corporation—in the Washington, DC metro area. This revelation came about following the publication last week of a letter by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Christopher Krebs, in which he indicated that his organization "has observed anomalous activity in the National Capital Region (NCR) that appears to be consistent with International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers."

Krebs' letter was a response to Senator Ron Wyden, who inquired last November about whether or not evidence exists indicating that foreign intelligence services were using the technology within the United States. Wyden's inquiry (correctly) characterized IMSI catchers as devices that "impersonate cell phone towers to locate and identify nearby phones and to intercept calls and text messages covertly."

Further, a task force was established by the FCC in 2014 following reports by security researchers that IMSI catchers were being used around DC, as reported by the Washington Post at the time, though no further statements about the issue have been made since that time.