Re: Hmm.... Interesting Case...
If you read this wikipedia article about it below you can see it has the ability to listen into the device by forcing the phone to use crappy encryption A5/2 which can be cracked real time allowing them to perform a MITM attack with the real cell tower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray_phone_tracker
I suspect this and its other capabilities is what they are trying to hide, rather than the ability to see what phones are in the general vicinity.
Also they seem to say it isn't being used to track people, but in this case that seems iffy.
How did they come to suspect who was the robber? Was it a case of seeing what mobile phones were next to his phone at that specific time he was robbed using stingray? This would normally require a court order to get info from the mobile phone companies. (hardly worth it for a mugging)
Or did they have a suspect in mind and just used the stingray to find his SIM and then find him? But then that opens the question, how did they know his SIMs IMSI without obtaining a court order from the mobile phone company?
The stingray has the capabilities to track a SIMs unique IMSI number and location. The question is, is this being deployed city wide to track all mobiles and location? So when a crime is committed they can back track and see what mobiles were in that vicinity, then track where they are now. They don't even need to know who the people are to send someone to the phones current location. The massive benefit to them is that they don't have to get a court order to request data from the mobile phone companies.
The very fact that they are not being open about it shows they have something to hide.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
