It allows forcing the mobile phone connected to it to use no call encryption (A5/0 mode) or to use easily breakable encryption (A5/1 or A5/2 mode), making the call data easy to intercept and convert to audio. The IMSI catcher masquerades as a base station and logs the IMSI numbers of all the mobile stations in the area, as they attempt to attach to the IMSI-catcher. This well-known security hole is exploited by an IMSI catcher. The GSM specification requires the handset to authenticate to the network, but does not require the network to authenticate to the handset. īody-worn IMSI-catchers that target nearby mobile phones are being advertised to law enforcement agencies in the US. In the UK, the first public body to admit using IMSI catchers was the Scottish Prison Service, though it is likely that the Metropolitan Police Service has been using IMSI catchers since 2011 or before. Police departments have been reluctant to reveal use of these programs and contracts with vendors such as Harris Corporation, the maker of Stingray and Kingfish phone tracker devices. They can also be used in search and rescue operation for missing persons. IMSI-catchers are often deployed by court order without a search warrant, the lower judicial standard of a pen register and trap-and-trace order being preferred by law enforcement. The device can be viewed as simply a modified cell tower with a malicious operator, and on 4 January 2012, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales held that the patent is invalid for obviousness. It was patented and first commercialized by Rohde & Schwarz in 2003.
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