How I preserve my telephone protected towards stingrays (not that sort)

Abstract

Stingrays trick iPhones and Android units alike into sharing delicate info, significantly your IMSI quantity, which can be utilized for identification and monitoring.
Android has non-compulsory protections like disabling 2G and blocking unencrypted communications, however help relies on the precise telephone you have got, and which model of Android it is working.
iPhones have fewer defenses towards stingrays until you allow Lockdown Mode.

It has been over a decade for the reason that 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 using “stingrays,” often known as IMSI catchers. Police, navy, and intelligence companies have often used these to intercept knowledge on cellphone customers with out their information — and criminals might now be making use of the know-how as properly.

All this makes it clever to be taught somewhat bit about how stingrays work, and how one can shield your iPhone or Android system towards 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 in the end.

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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 particular product — the StingRay, made by the Harris Company. It is loads simpler to speak about stingrays than IMSI catchers, nonetheless, so the product turned a catch-all time period, a lot as some folks confer with all facial tissues as Kleenex.

Functionally, stingrays trick your telephone into connecting to them by pretending to be a close-by mobile tower. As soon as that occurs, it is doable to extract delicate knowledge, together with your telephone’s IMSI (Worldwide Cellular 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 system inside vary of a stingray is susceptible to connecting to it, so your knowledge could also be snatched up even once you aren’t an meant goal.

This will likely all sound like one thing your telephone ought to have the ability to defend towards, however stingrays can dupe your telephone 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 isn’t dealt with correctly, it could turn into 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 knowledge could also be snatched up even once you aren’t an meant 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 clarify than I can presumably go into right here, so I encourage you to be taught extra, significantly if you happen to’re planning to hitch a politically delicate protest.

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shield an Android system towards stingrays

The most effective safety is reserved for the newest units

A very powerful factor is maintaining Android up-to-date, and being conscious of its anti-stingray choices. For those who’ve obtained Android 12 or later, you possibly can disable 2G connectivity utterly by going to Settings -> Community & Web -> SIMs, selecting your SIM, then toggling off Permit 2G. Don’t fret — most telephone carriers have switched completely to 4G and 5G, so you will not discover any calls, texts, or knowledge interrupted. Certainly even 3G networks are being deprecated, since they’re too sluggish 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 isn’t any professional cause to be utilizing unencrypted knowledge anymore, given how harmful the web might be, so disabling null ciphers is an apparent method of mitigating the specter of stingray assaults. Android 15 takes one more step ahead, enabling a notification every time a community asks for distinctive system identifiers, or forces weaker safety.

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

Android 16 features a Cellular community safety web page to centralize issues, which you must have the ability to attain through Settings -> Safety & privateness -> Security Heart. There is a large 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 if you happen to personal one thing as current as a Pixel 9. You could have to attend on your subsequent telephone improve to check this out.

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

For those who’re in a high-risk state of affairs, there are apps that may probably warn you about stingrays, similar to SnoopSnitch. The one zero-risk choice, although, is to dam mobile exercise completely, and that applies to each iPhones and Android units.

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shield an iPhone towards stingrays

Time to play catch-up

Enabling Lockdown Mode on an iPhone. — Apple

Apple

iPhones are lagging behind in relation to stingray safety, however they are not 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 all the way down to a much less safe community.

For those who 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. Chances are you’ll end up unable to roam home networks, and you will have to manually choose a service once you journey overseas. It is most likely not well worth the trouble.

That is partly as a result of in iOS 16 or later, Apple gives a characteristic known as Lockdown Mode. This allows a large set of safety measures, largely meant for journalists, dissidents, and others susceptible to being focused by authoritarian regimes or international governments. For those who’re actually fearful about stingrays, although, Lockdown Mode forcibly disables 2G, and limits how your iPhone can work together with the surface world. It is so draconian that you must keep away from it until completely needed — even many web sites and Messages attachments will not work.

It isn’t 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 in some unspecified time in the future, nonetheless, for the reason that firm prides itself on safety and privateness.