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

Abstract

Stingrays trick iPhones and Android units alike into sharing delicate info, notably your IMSI quantity, which can be utilized for identification and monitoring.
Android has non-compulsory protections like disabling 2G and blocking unencrypted communications, however assist is determined by the precise cellphone you will have, and which model of Android it is operating.
iPhones have fewer defenses in opposition to stingrays except you allow Lockdown Mode.

It has been over a decade because the begin of the Snowden leaks, which uncovered mass surveillance applications 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,” often known as IMSI catchers. Police, army, and intelligence companies have sometimes used these to intercept information on cellphone customers with out their data — and criminals might now be making use of the know-how as properly.

All this makes it clever to study a little bit bit about how stingrays work, and how one can defend your iPhone or Android machine in opposition to them, since nobody has an inherent proper to intercept your cellphone site visitors and not using a warrant. What’s attention-grabbing is that for the time being, Android 16 appears to supply a bonus on this space — although Apple will presumably catch up eventually.

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

Preying on hidden vulnerabilities

Unsplash

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 so much simpler to speak about stingrays than IMSI catchers, nonetheless, so the product turned 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 Id) quantity, which can be utilized to establish and observe you. Stingrays can 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.

Any mobile machine inside vary of a stingray is vulnerable to connecting to it, so your information could also be snatched up even if you aren’t an supposed goal.

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 briefly switching you from 5G to 2G, which most carriers have deserted. Usually, computerized hopping is an effective factor — it retains you related as you progress between areas with totally different protection. But when it is not dealt with correctly, it could turn out to be an assault vector.

One of many terrifying issues about stingrays is that they are non-discriminatory. That’s, any mobile machine inside vary of a stingray is vulnerable 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 study extra, notably in the event you’re planning to hitch a politically delicate protest.

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How you can defend an Android machine in opposition to stingrays

The perfect safety is reserved for the newest units

An important factor is conserving Android up-to-date, and being conscious of its anti-stingray choices. In the event you’ve bought Android 12 or later, you may disable 2G connectivity utterly by going to Settings -> Community & Web -> SIMs, selecting your SIM, then toggling off Enable 2G. Don’t fret — 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 contemporary apps.

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

The one zero-risk choice, although, is to dam mobile exercise totally.

Android 16 features a Cell community safety web page to centralize issues, which it is best to have the ability to attain by way of Settings -> Safety & privateness -> Security Heart. There is a huge catch, nonetheless — it solely seems on units 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 the event you personal one thing as latest as a Pixel 9. You could have to attend on your subsequent cellphone improve to check this out.

The excellent news right here is that many Android telephones ought to assist disabling 2G, a minimum of. It is simply much less handy and safe than what the newest and best Android 16 units are able to.

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

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How you can defend an iPhone in opposition to stingrays

Time to play catch-up

Enabling Lockdown Mode on an iPhone. — Apple

Apple

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

In the event you use that step, you might also wish 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 service if you journey overseas. It is most likely not definitely worth the problem.

That is partly as a result of in iOS 16 or later, Apple provides a function known as Lockdown Mode. This permits a large set of safety measures, largely supposed for journalists, dissidents, and others vulnerable to being focused by authoritarian regimes or overseas governments. In the event you’re actually anxious 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 it is best to keep away from it except completely essential — even many web sites and Messages attachments will not work.

It is not clear but whether or not iOS 26, coming fall 2025, will provide any enhancements to stingray safety. I am anticipating Apple to meet up with Android sooner or later, nonetheless, because the firm prides itself on safety and privateness.