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Fake Mobile Phone Towers Found To Be "Actively Listening In" On Calls In UK

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-the-better-to-hear-you-with dept.

New submitter nickweller writes: More than 20 Stingray fake phone towers which can collect data from passing devices and listen in on calls have been discovered operating in the UK. The Metropolitan Police have refused to say who is controlling the IMSI catchers, also known as Stingrays, or what is being done with the information they are gathering. Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "If people imagine that we’ve got the resources to do as much intrusion as they worry about, I would reassure them that it’s impossible.”

5 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Translation by tinkerton · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "If people imagine that we’ve got the resources to do as much intrusion as they worry about, I would reassure them that it’s impossible.”

    In other words, "
    If people think we're trying to screw them as much as possible with the limited resources we have, I would reassure them we are."

  2. Let me guess... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm assuming that their ever-so-coy stance on whether or not the stingrays are their stingrays would evaporate rather quickly if somebody were to climb up, cut one down, and make off with it...

    Feds have this funny habit of suddenly getting really possessive of things that previously didn't exist if you start touching them.

  3. "We do all these for the children" by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We do it for the Children

    We strive all days and all nights to keep you and all your children safe

    You can trust us, we are good people

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  4. Criminal towers? by hairykrishna · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was publicly demonstrated not long ago that it's possible to listen into a given persons GSM calls relatively easily with cheap, consumer grade, equipment. If there's a bunch of these impostor towers knocking about and the police's position is that it's not them using them then I'd quite like them to be making an effort to find out who they do belong to ASAP. Shrugging and saying “we don't have the resources to bother tapping your phones” is not an acceptable response even if it's true.

    --
    "Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
  5. Re:What is a republic? by msk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Marriage should be a matter of contract law, not criminal law. Anything dictated on government terms is Big Government, which the Republicans allegedly eschew.