How I maintain my cellphone protected in opposition to stingrays (not that sort)

It has been over a decade because the begin of the Snowden leaks, which uncovered mass surveillance packages within the US. I point out this as a result of one of many smaller issues Snowden (and others) drew consideration to is the usage of “stingrays,” also referred to as IMSI catchers. Police, army, and intelligence businesses have sometimes used these to intercept information on cellphone customers with out their information — and criminals might now be making use of the expertise as properly.

All this makes it sensible to be taught just a little bit about how stingrays work, and how one can shield your iPhone or Android system in opposition to them, since nobody has an inherent proper to intercept your cellphone site visitors with out a warrant. What’s attention-grabbing is that in the intervening time, Android 16 appears to supply a bonus on this space — although Apple will presumably catch up eventually.

What’s a stingray, and the way does it work?

Preying on hidden vulnerabilities

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The very first thing to level out is that legally talking, the time period “stingray” derives from a selected product — the StingRay, made by the Harris Company. It is quite a bit simpler to speak about stingrays than IMSI catchers, nevertheless, so the product grew to become a catch-all time period, a lot as some folks consult with all facial tissues as Kleenex.

Functionally, stingrays trick your cellphone into connecting to them by pretending to be a close-by mobile tower. As soon as that occurs, it is potential to extract delicate information, together with your cellphone’s IMSI (Worldwide Cell Subscriber Identification) quantity, which can be utilized to determine and observe you. Stingrays might also be used to gather metadata, and in some instances, the precise content material of communications. Extra hardly ever, stingrays are used as offensive weapons, say to conduct denial of service (DoS) assaults.

This may increasingly all sound like one thing your cellphone ought to have the ability to defend in opposition to, however stingrays can dupe your cellphone into utilizing a protocol with weaker safety, as an example by quickly switching you from 5G to 2G, which most carriers have deserted. Usually, automated hopping is an efficient factor — it retains you linked as you progress between areas with completely different protection. But when it is not dealt with correctly, it might turn out to be an assault vector.

One of many terrifying issues about stingrays is that they are non-discriminatory. That’s, any mobile system inside vary of a stingray is susceptible to connecting to it, so your information could also be snatched up even if you aren’t an supposed goal. This and different points have drawn the eye of scrutiny of teams just like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Digital Frontier Basis. There’s extra to elucidate than I can presumably go into right here, so I encourage you to be taught extra, significantly in case you’re planning to hitch a politically delicate protest.

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Methods to shield an Android system in opposition to stingrays

One of the best safety is reserved for the most recent gadgets

A very powerful factor is holding Android up-to-date, and being conscious of its anti-stingray choices. In the event you’ve received Android 12 or later, you’ll be able to disable 2G connectivity utterly by going to Settings -> Community & Web -> SIMs, selecting your SIM, then toggling off Enable 2G. Don’t be concerned — most cellphone carriers have switched completely to 4G and 5G, so you will not discover any calls, texts, or information interrupted. Certainly even 3G networks are being deprecated, since they’re too gradual to maintain up with the calls for of recent apps.

Android 14 expands this safety with an choice to dam “null ciphers,” i.e. unencrypted communications. There isn’t any respectable cause to be utilizing unencrypted information anymore, given how harmful the web will be, so disabling null ciphers is an apparent approach of mitigating the specter of stingray assaults. Android 15 takes yet one more step ahead, enabling a notification each time a community asks for distinctive system identifiers, or forces weaker safety.

Android 16 features a Cell community safety web page to centralize issues, which you must have the ability to attain by way of Settings -> Safety & privateness -> Security Heart. There is a massive catch, nevertheless — it solely seems on gadgets with specific modems, and model 3.0 or later of Android’s IRadio {hardware} abstraction layer (HAL). You are unlikely to see the web page in any respect, even in case you personal one thing as current as a Pixel 9. You might have to attend in your subsequent cellphone improve to check this out.

The excellent news right here is that many Android telephones ought to help disabling 2G, at the very least. It is simply much less handy and safe than what the most recent and biggest Android 16 gadgets are able to.

In the event you’re in a high-risk scenario, there are apps that may doubtlessly warn you about stingrays, corresponding to SnoopSnitch. The one zero-risk choice, although, is to dam mobile exercise totally, and that applies to each iPhones and Android gadgets.

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Methods to shield an iPhone in opposition to stingrays

Time to play catch-up

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iPhones are lagging behind in relation to stingray safety, however they don’t seem to be defenseless. You possibly can, for instance, go to Settings -> Mobile -> Mobile Information Choices -> Voice & Information and select both 5G On or LTE. The 5G Auto choice does enhance battery life, however will increase your possibilities of being kicked right down to a much less safe community.

In the event you use that step, you might also need to go to Settings -> Mobile -> Community Choice and disable Computerized, however be warned — this selection can create havoc. It’s possible you’ll end up unable to roam home networks, and you will have to manually choose a provider if you journey overseas. It is most likely not definitely worth the trouble.

That is partly as a result of in iOS 16 or later, Apple gives a function referred to as Lockdown Mode. This permits a large set of safety measures, principally supposed for journalists, dissidents, and others susceptible to being focused by authoritarian regimes or overseas governments. In the event you’re really fearful about stingrays, although, Lockdown Mode forcibly disables 2G, and limits how your iPhone can work together with the skin world. It is so draconian that you must keep away from it except completely crucial — even many web sites and Messages attachments will not work.

It is not clear but whether or not iOS 26, coming fall 2025, will supply any enhancements to stingray safety. I am anticipating Apple to meet up with Android in some unspecified time in the future, nevertheless, because the firm prides itself on safety and privateness.

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