Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

theintercept.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 215 posts

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#41

Post by samtheprogram »

jagged-chisel wrote: post #27
jdefr89 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will need a warrant usually even with stingray. I worked at said company on said technologies and left because I was comfortable with controls in place that prevent law enforcement from abusing it.

> I was comfortable I think perhaps you meant the opposite? You have about 30min to edit your comment...

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted, the other words in GP’s comment, along with his other comment here [1], clearly indicate that you’re right. Unfortunately it looks like 30 minutes have gone by.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24039707

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#42

Post by boring_twenties »

seniorsassycat wrote: post #14

> stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked. Can android, iOS, or an open phone os prevent 2g communication?

On Android, enter \#\#4636#\#\ in the dialer. Then select "LTE only." (This will prevent 3G as well as 2G)

edit: You gotta be kidding me with this formatting. Replace backslashes with asterisks.

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#45

Post by jancsika »

Protests should shift to "choose-your-own-adventure" style where a blockchain decides which branch to take. Just have a small selection of, say, 4 styles to choose from, where the most extreme includes potential branches with Ghandi-level long-term economic disruption.

That way the stingray offers no advantage over the protesters; law enforcement and protesters get the next chapter at exactly the same time, and no single protestor or group of protestors may be targeted to disrupt the decision-making process.

That pushes law enforcement either back to pre-protest prevention measures (which won't work for a spontaneous protest like BLM), or to disrupt internet connectivity altogether (which, for the Ghandi-level protest has its own economic implications).

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#46

Post by function_seven »

boring_twenties wrote: post #42
seniorsassycat wrote: post #14

> stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked. Can android, iOS, or an open phone os prevent 2g communication?

On Android, enter \ #\ #4636#\ #\ in the dialer. Then select "LTE only." (This will prevent 3G as well as 2G) edit: You gotta be kidding me with this formatting. Replace backslashes with asterisks.

My apologies if this comes out garbled. Trying something...

∗#∗#4636#∗#∗

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#47

Post by [deleted] »

boring_twenties wrote: post #42
seniorsassycat wrote: post #14

> stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked. Can android, iOS, or an open phone os prevent 2g communication?

On Android, enter \ #\ #4636#\ #\ in the dialer. Then select "LTE only." (This will prevent 3G as well as 2G) edit: You gotta be kidding me with this formatting. Replace backslashes with asterisks.

[deleted]

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#48

Post by sandstrom »

Anyone know of any progress in 6G, that would improve privacy in this area? For example randomized (or truly encrypted) IMEI numbers?

Also, I found this SIM card which seems to be doing IMEI randomization:

https://omertadigital.com/blogs/news/encrypted-sim-cards-wha...

Re: Stingrays and Dirtboxes: how cops can secretly track your phone

#50

Post by godelski »

boring_twenties wrote: post #42
seniorsassycat wrote: post #14

> stingrays can force phones to downgrade to 2G, a less secure protocol, and tell the phone to use either no encryption or use a weak encryption that can be cracked. Can android, iOS, or an open phone os prevent 2g communication?

On Android, enter \ #\ #4636#\ #\ in the dialer. Then select "LTE only." (This will prevent 3G as well as 2G) edit: You gotta be kidding me with this formatting. Replace backslashes with asterisks.

That's because it is for MarkDown. So you can do things like this. But you can do * this * and it is fine. The difference is spacing.
Post reply on HN