Nov
04
2011
2

FBI Used a Fake Cell Phone Tower To Search a Guy

Cell Phone Tower Keithius 225x300
Federal authorities used a fake Verizon cellphone tower to zero in on a suspect’s wireless card, and say they were perfectly within their rights to do so, even without a warrant.

Federal authorities used a fake Verizon cellphone tower to zero in on a suspect’s wireless card, and say they were perfectly within their rights to do so, even without a warrant.

This is something, the Federal authorities in the US put up a fake cell tower. Just to get some information of a guy, somewhat overkill as with their warrant they could just have asked verizon for that same info..

The question i guess is was this right of them to do? According to the jury it was their right under the fourth ammendment and considered a standard search.

They used a device called a stingray which spoof’s a legitimate cellphone tower in order to trick nearby cellphones and other wireless communication devices into connecting to the tower, as they would to a real cellphone tower. When devices connect, stingrays can see and record their unique ID numbers and traffic data, as well as information that points to a device’s location. To prevent detection by suspects, the stingray sends the data to a real tower so that traffic continues to flow.