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

Abstract

Stingrays trick iPhones and Android gadgets alike into sharing delicate data, notably your IMSI quantity, which can be utilized for identification and monitoring.
Android has elective protections like disabling 2G and blocking unencrypted communications, however assist relies on the precise cellphone you will have, and which model of Android it is operating.
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 the usage of “stingrays,” also called IMSI catchers. Police, army, and intelligence businesses have sometimes used these to intercept knowledge on cellphone customers with out their information — and criminals might now be making use of the know-how as effectively.

All this makes it smart to study somewhat bit about how stingrays work, and how one can shield your iPhone or Android machine towards them, since nobody has an inherent proper to intercept your cellphone visitors with out a warrant. What’s attention-grabbing is that in the meanwhile, Android 16 appears to supply a bonus on this space — although Apple will presumably catch up ultimately.

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

Preying on hidden vulnerabilities

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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 quite a bit simpler to speak about stingrays than IMSI catchers, nevertheless, so the product grew to become a catch-all time period, a lot as some folks confer 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 knowledge, together with your cellphone’s IMSI (Worldwide Cell Subscriber Id) quantity, which can be utilized to establish and monitor you. Stingrays may additionally be used to gather metadata, and in some instances, the precise content material of communications. Extra not often, stingrays are used as offensive weapons, say to conduct denial of service (DoS) assaults.

Any mobile machine 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 may occasionally all sound like one thing your cellphone ought to have the ability to defend towards, however stingrays can dupe your cellphone into utilizing a protocol with weaker safety, as an example by quickly switching you from 5G to 2G, which most carriers have deserted. Usually, computerized hopping is an efficient factor — it retains you related as you progress between areas with totally different protection. But when it isn’t dealt with correctly, it may possibly develop into 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 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 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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The right way to shield an Android machine towards stingrays

The very best safety is reserved for the most recent gadgets

A very powerful factor is holding Android up-to-date, and being conscious of its anti-stingray choices. If you happen to’ve obtained Android 12 or later, you’ll be able to disable 2G connectivity fully by going to Settings -> Community & Web -> SIMs, selecting your SIM, then toggling off Enable 2G. Don’t fret — most cellphone carriers have switched solely 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 gradual to maintain up with the calls for of recent apps.

Android 14 expands this safety with an possibility to dam “null ciphers,” i.e. unencrypted communications. There is no reliable cause to be utilizing unencrypted knowledge anymore, given how harmful the web may be, so disabling null ciphers is an apparent approach of mitigating the specter of stingray assaults. Android 15 takes one more step ahead, enabling a notification at any time when a community asks for distinctive machine identifiers, or forces weaker safety.

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

Android 16 features a Cell community safety web page to centralize issues, which it is best to have the ability to attain through Settings -> Safety & privateness -> Security Middle. There is a huge catch, nevertheless — it solely seems on gadgets with explicit 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 current as a Pixel 9. You could have to attend in 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 most recent and biggest Android 16 gadgets are able to.

If you happen to’re in a high-risk state of affairs, there are apps that may probably warn you about stingrays, comparable to SnoopSnitch. The one zero-risk possibility, although, is to dam mobile exercise completely, and that applies to each iPhones and Android gadgets.

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The right way to shield an iPhone towards stingrays

Time to play catch-up

Enabling Lockdown Mode on an iPhone. — Apple

Apple

iPhones are lagging behind in the case of stingray safety, however they don’t seem to be defenseless. You may, for instance, go to Settings -> Mobile -> Mobile Information Choices -> Voice & Information and select both 5G On or LTE. The 5G Auto possibility does enhance battery life, however will increase your possibilities of being kicked all the way down to a much less safe community.

If you happen to use that step, you might also wish to go to Settings -> Mobile -> Community Choice and disable Automated, however be warned — this feature can create havoc. It’s possible you’ll end up unable to roam home networks, and you will have to manually choose a provider once 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 referred to as Lockdown Mode. This allows a large set of safety measures, principally meant for journalists, dissidents, and others susceptible to being focused by authoritarian regimes or international governments. If you happen to’re really fearful 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 until 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, nevertheless, for the reason that firm prides itself on safety and privateness.