The Associated Press reported April 3 that the U.S. government acknowledges the existence of rogue cell devices in the nation’s capital that track cell calls and eavesdrop on individual calls and messages.
“In a March 26 letter to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that last year it identified suspected unauthorized cell-site simulators in the nation’s capital,” the report stated “The agency said it had not determined the type of devices in use or who might have been operating them. Nor did it say how many it detected or where.”
Wyden wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in November asking for information on “IMSI catchers” and “stingrays”—devices that “impersonate cell towers,” and identify individual cell phones within their range.
“Whether foreign intelligence services and criminals are using IMSI catchers to spy on senior members of the U.S. government is undoubtedly a question worth answering,” Wyden wrote in November. “Foreign government surveillance of senior American political and business leaders would obviously pose a significant threat to our country’s national and economic security.”
Though not publicly released, the response to Wyden from Christopher Krebs at DHS said the department “had observed ‘anomalous activity’ consistent with Stingrays in the Washington area,” the AP story noted.
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