Harris Corp.’s Stingray surveillance device has been one of the most closely guarded secrets in law enforcement for more than 15 years. The company and its police clients across the United States have fought to keep information about the mobile phone-monitoring boxes from the public against which they are used. The Intercept has obtained several Harris instruction manuals spanning roughly 200 pages and meticulously detailing how to create a cellular surveillance dragnet.
Harris has fought to keep its surveillance equipment, which carries price tags in the low six figures, hidden from both privacy activists and the general public, arguing that information about the gear could help criminals. Accordingly, an older Stingray manual released under the Freedom of Information Act to news website TheBlot.com last year was almost completely redacted. So too have law enforcement agencies at every level, across the country, evaded almost all attempts to learn how and why these extremely powerful tools are being used — though court battles have made it clear Stingrays are often deployed without any warrant. The San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department alone has snooped via Stingray, sans warrant, over 300 times.
Richard Tynan, a technologist with Privacy International, told The Intercept that the “manuals released today offer the most up-to-date view on the operation of” Stingrays and similar cellular surveillance devices, with powerful capabilities that threaten civil liberties, communications infrastructure, and potentially national security. He noted that the documents show the “Stingray II” device can impersonate four cellular communications towers at once, monitoring up to four cellular provider networks simultaneously, and with an add-on can operate on so-called 2G, 3G, and 4G networks simultaneously.
“There really isn’t any place for innocent people to hide from a device such as this,” Tynan wrote in an email.
“As more of our infrastructure, homes, environment, and transportation are connected wirelessly to the internet, such technologies really do pose a massive risk to public safety and security.”
And the Harris software isn’t just extremely powerful, Tynan added, but relatively simple, providing any law enforcement agent with a modicum of computer literacy the ability to spy on large groups of people:
The ease with which the StingRay II can be used is quite striking and there do not seem to be any technical safeguards against misuse. … It also allows the operator to configure virtually every aspect of the operation of the fake cell tower. … The Gemini platform also allows for the logging and analysis of data to and from the network and “Once a message to/from any active subscriber in the Subscriber list is detected, Gemini will notify the user.” How many innocent communications of the public are analyzed during this process?
Tynan also raised questions about the extent to which Stingrays may be disrupting the communications infrastructure, including existing cellular towers.
Harris declined to comment. In a 2014 letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the company argued that if the owner’s manuals were released under the Freedom of Information Act, this would “harm Harris’s competitive interests” and “criminals and terrorist[s] would have access to information that would allow them to build countermeasures.” But Stingrays are known for spying on low-level marijuana dealers and other domestic targets, not al Qaeda; as the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jennifer Lynch said in December, “I am not aware of any case in which a police agency has used a cell-site simulator to find a terrorist.” Meanwhile, it is already publicly known that the NSA uses Stingray-like devices to locate suspected terrorists as part of a system known as Gilgamesh. Nathan Wessler, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Intercept that “when the most likely ‘countermeasure’ is someone turning their phone off or leaving it at home, it is hard to understand how public release of a manual like this could cause harm.” And furthermore, said Wessler, “It is in the public interest to understand the general capabilities of this technology, so that lawmakers and judges can exercise appropriate oversight and protect people’s privacy rights.”
The documents described and linked below, instruction manuals for the software used by Stingray operators, were provided to The Intercept as part of a larger cache believed to have originated with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Two of them contain a “distribution warning” saying they contain “Proprietary Information and the release of this document and the information contained herein is prohibited to the fullest extent allowable by law.”
Although “Stingray” has become a catch-all name for devices of its kind, often referred to as “IMSI catchers,” the manuals include instructions for a range of other Harris surveillance boxes, including the Hailstorm, ArrowHead, AmberJack, and KingFish. They make clear the capability of those devices and the Stingray II to spy on cellphones by, at minimum, tracking their connection to the simulated tower, information about their location, and certain “over the air” electronic messages sent to and from them. Wessler added that parts of the manuals make specific reference to permanently storing this data, something that American law enforcement has denied doing in the past.
One piece of Windows software used to control Harris’s spy boxes, software that appears to be sold under the name “Gemini,” allows police to track phones across 2G, 3G, and LTE networks. Another Harris app, “iDen Controller,” provides a litany of fine-grained options for tracking phones. A law enforcement agent using these pieces of software along with Harris hardware could not only track a large number of phones as they moved throughout a city but could also apply nicknames to certain phones to keep track of them in the future. The manual describing how to operate iDEN, the lengthiest document of the four at 156 pages, uses an example of a target (called a “subscriber”) tagged alternately as Green Boy and Green Ben:
The documents also make clear just how easy it is to execute a bulk surveillance regime from the trunk of a car: A Gemini “Quick Start Guide,” which runs to 54 pages, contains an entire chapter on logging, which “enables the user to listen and log over the air messages that are being transmitted between the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) and the Mobile Subscriber (MS).” It’s not clear exactly what sort of metadata or content would be captured in such logging. The “user” here, of course, is a police officer.
In order to maintain an uninterrupted connection to a target’s phone, the Harris software also offers the option of intentionally degrading (or “redirecting”) someone’s phone onto an inferior network, for example, knocking a connection from LTE to 2G:
A video of the Gemini software installed on a personal computer, obtained by The Intercept and embedded below, provides not only an extensive demonstration of the app but also underlines how accessible the mass surveillance code can be: Installing a complete warrantless surveillance suite is no more complicated than installing Skype. Indeed, software such as Photoshop or Microsoft Office, which require a registration key or some other proof of ownership, are more strictly controlled by their makers than software designed for cellular interception.
“While this device is being discussed in the context of U.S. law enforcement,” said Tynan, “this could be used by foreign agents against the U.S. public and administration. It is no longer acceptable for our phones and mobile networks to be exploited in such an invasive and indiscriminate way.”
Documents published with this article:
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act and the brain initiative are the worst scams ever perpetrated on the American people. Former U. S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin Warns: Biochips Hazardous to Your Health: Warning, biochips may cause behavioral changes and high suicide rates. State Attorney Generals are to revoke the licenses of doctors and dentists that implant chips in patients. Chip used illegally for GPS, tracking, organized crime, communication and torture. Virginia state police have been implanting citizens without their knowledge and consent for years and they are dying! Check out William and Mary’s site to see the torture enabled by the biochip and the Active Denial System. See Terrorism and Mental Health by Amin Gadit or A Note on Uberveillance by MG & Katina Michael or Safeguards in a World of Ambient Intelligence by Springer or Mind Control, Microchip Implants and Cybernetics. Check out the audio spotlight by Holosonics. The truth is the biochip works like a sim card. It received pulsed modulated laser beams and millimeter wave which it converts into electromagnetic waves that your brain interprets into digital images and sound. It then takes what your brain sees and hears and converts electromagnetic waves into digital and acoustic waves that a computer translates into audio and video. In other words, it allows law enforcement to see what you see, hear what you hear and communicate directly with your brain.
“Former Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) director and now Google Executive, Regina E. Dugan, has unveiled a super small, ingestible microchip that we can all be expected to swallow by 2017. “A means of authentication,” she calls it, also called an electronic tattoo, which
takes NSA spying to whole new levels. She talks of the ‘mechanical mismatch problem between machines and humans,’ and specifically targets 10 – 20 year olds in her rant about the wonderful qualities of this new technology that can stretch in the human body and still be functional. Hailed as a ‘critical shift for research and medicine,’ these biochips would not only allow full access to insurance companies and government agencies to our pharmaceutical med-taking compliancy (or lack thereof), but also a host of other aspects of our lives which are truly none of their business, and certainly an extension of the removal of our freedoms and rights.” Google News
The ARRA authorizes payments to the states in an effort to encourage Medicaid Providers to adopt and use “certified EHR technology” aka biochips. ARRA will match Medicaid $5 for every $1 a state provides. Hospitals are paid $2 million to create “crisis stabilization wards” (Gitmo’s) where state police torture people – even unto death. They stopped my heart 90 times in 6 hours. Virginia Beach EMT’s were called to the scene. Mary E. Schloendorff, v. The Society of New York Hospital 105 N. E. 92, 93 (N. Y. 1914) Justice Cardozo states, “every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body; and a surgeon who performs an operation without his patient’s consent, commits an assault, for which he is liable in damages. (Pratt v Davis, 224 Ill. 300; Mohr v Williams, 95 Minn. 261.) This case precedent requires police to falsely arrest you or kidnap you and call you a mental health patient in order to force the implant on you. You can also be forced to have a biochip if you have an infectious disease – like Eboli or Aids.
Coalition of Justice vs the City of Hampton, VA settled a case out of court for $500,000 and removal of the biochip. Torture is punishable by $1,000 per day up to $2 million; Medical battery is worth $2.05 million. They told my family it was the brain initiative. I checked with the oversight board, and it is not! Mark Warner told me it was research with the Active Denial System by the College of William and Mary, the USAF, and state and local law enforcement. It is called IBEX and it is excruciating. I have had 3 surgeries at the site of the implant and need another. It causes cancer! I’ve been tortured for 8 years by Virginia law enforcement. Thousands of innocent Virginians are being tortured and murdered by criminal cops. Please help us get the word out to end these heinous atrocities. The pain is 24/7. The VA DCJS sent me a letter stating cops can get keys to anyone’s home and steal anything they please. The governor knows and takes his cut. Senator Kaine said the FBI is not involved so he can’t help. Check out Virginia’s Casual Disregard for the Constitution at forbes dot com. Check out Richard Cain’s case. They are torturing infants and children. The active denial system comes in rifle form and can murder without leaving a mark. I have had two heart attacks and am blessed to be alive. We need to make the nation aware to stop these thugs. Now a Dr. Whaley of the Medical Examiner’s office reports covering up murders by cops and selling brains for $6250 each to the NIH. Beware of Riverside and Sentara Hospital. Beware of Dr. Lawrence Chang, Pariser Dermatology, Dr. Nicole Nelson, Dr. Shaista Ahsai, and Dr. Lika in her red mercedes, and Riverside Emergency Room Physicians, and Dr. Denis Cruff, Dr. Mark Kanter and Hampton Sentara Surgeons and Tidewater Multi-specialty Group and Dr. Elizabeth Cooper. Most of all, beware of state and local police in Virginia. Please help us.
What are my options as an aggrieved individual under (un)lawful intercept? Who should I file a report with? What is acceptable evidence / proof of the LEAs indiscretions?
Typical crickets…
Don’t do anything stupid and you won’t need to worry.
This is not an option in a police state…. Get a clue,
Your SILENCE will NOT protect you…no more then
those suburban families who end up very DEAD
after the SWAT team “accidentally” smashes their
door at 3:00 AM. I see a lot of LEO trolls on this
thread…trying to deflect the fact that they are
CORRUPT and see the “civilian” (think about
that a minute…) as an enemy. Let me ask these
trolls…when you see a cop kill someone in cold
blood on youtube…why do the other cops just
stand around…why do they let the person shot
just bleed out on the pavement…? Where is your
honor…?
There’s a very good reason why cops don’t help someone dying on the pavement and it has nothing to do with being corrupt. Its called LIABILITY. This applies to everyone, not just cops btw. If you’re not an on-duty first responder and you attempt to help someone whose been shot, been in a car wreck, having a heart attack, etc. you open yourself up to civil litigation regardless of the outcome. A trained nurse will sit there and watch you die if she’s not on the clock because being a good samaritan gets you sued. Has nothing to do with honor.
I think saving a life even if you could be sued is in fact a measure of honor. Although I dissagree with the prior commentors blanket statements I do echo the question. I think the aswner is at best an exzsmple of the bystander effevt and at worst case destruction of evidence. I am not cop. I have had my rights violeted by a few, had my rights read to me by more then a few and my rights defended or up held many more.
No. Wrong. There are Good Samaritan laws in place. If you have consent of the person who is in need of help, or if they are incapable of giving consent, you do not risk liability by providing first aid, as long as you act within your training.
For example, let’s say you’re a certified lifeguard. You are walking down the street and you see someone in need of CPR. You ask if you can help, but they are unconscious and can’t respond. First you instruct someone to call 911. Then you deliver only that care which you are trained to deliver. Lifeguards are certified in CPR, so you could begin that treatment while waiting for the EMS. However, you (as a lifeguard) could not perform a tracheotomy, because that would be outside the scope of your training. The person who you gave CPR cannot sue you if you were acting within the scope of your training as a good Samaritan. Same goes for cops, who are trained in first aid and CPR. They can begin care without risk of liability. That doesn’t mean people may not try to sue, but the officer would be able to raise this as a defense.
In some states you don’t even have to act within your training, you just have to avoid gross negligence. And cops in particular as state actors who 95% of the time are entitled to sovereign immunity and thus are shielded.
The reason they don’t help is that it isn’t their job. Their job is to maintain order in public to prevent disruptions to capitalism and the rest of the social order.
Is the use of Stringray-type devices regulated?
Can anyone with technical know-how of building these type of devices start eavesdropping by building one of these?
I am wondering if we can start eavesdropping on the “Sherrif’s” communications?
If your local sheriff is doing something criminal, there are means for reporting it and if there is probable cause for a warrant, than yes, somebody could legally listen to your sheriff with this device.
If that is your plan, graduate the police academy, work your way up to detective and then work your magic from there.
You have the power to make a difference JayZ.
What are the “means for reporting” unlawful intercept?
Charliethree, clearly a police apologist, is working hard to derail the conversation here. Please tell me, Charlie, about these probable cause warrants. They should be required for using this type of technology, no? You clearly say that in your post. Why, then, do police departments across the United States continue to use this technology frequently and without warrant? Further, even when a warrant is secured, this technology captures the data of innocent bystanders. Why, oh why, are you putting such a heavy standard on JayZ to prove police corruption, when those same officers you defend do not seem concerned with silly old warrants? Sounds like a double standard.
“The documents described and linked below, instruction manuals for the software used by Stingray operators, were provided to The Intercept as part of a larger cache believed to have originated with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement…”
That is buried at the end of your news story for a reason I believe.
If a lobbyist for Sunoco “provides” information to a Senator, we question the authenticity of the information.
If an unknown source “provides” Sam Biddle information, why are we not supposed to question him also? How do you know this is authentic, Sam?
Nervous there, Charlie? Do your fellow detectives use stingrays without warrants often, or just always. You dissemble too much.
Screw the 4th, eh? Why is it you guys (and girls – plenty of sociopath girls too) always end up at the same stinkhole?
When you get off desk duty and spreading chaos, do you play basketball with your children?
Each and every police chief in the Unites States takes a supreme (and superseding) “loyalty oath” to operate within the boundaries of the U.S. Constitution – which includes the 4th Amendment. Subordinate rank & file officers follow orders from their superiors.
The 4th Amendment “restrains” police officers and prosecutors from snooping into a citizens private files, private documents or personal effects without a judicial warrant issued by an Article III court based on probable cause of a “past” crime.
Despite the rhetoric from police leaders, the reality is if police are allowed to snoop or perform fishing expeditions – they will abuse the targets of surveillance 100% of the time in longterm surveillance. In American history, domestic spying has never been passive or harmless. It places officers and federal agents in places they shouldn’t be and the targets of surveillance can be harmed or killed by this illegal surveillance.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that longterm surveillance (aka: blacklisting) is illegal under our U.S. Constitution. Every judge in the United States has a duty to follow that high court ruling.
The clock is striking 13 people, time to wake-up after 32 years. Mr RB is 100% right.
Feel free to cite evidence that these devices are being used without a warrant. After you find that evidence which doesn’t appear to exist, than maybe I will believe this is a violation of the fourth amendment.
Is it overkill to catch a weed dealer? Hell yea. I just don’t know about the unconstitutional part.
Even if we get a local detective whistleblower to cite evidence, that is not evidence of a federal problem.
Long story short: welcome to reality. The internet allowed us to communicate better and it allowed them to communicate better also. Pandora’s Box can’t be shut now that it’s open.
Protect yourself accordingly.
Feel free to read the evidence:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-stingray-idUSKCN0ZS2VI
Barring a circumstance in which “weed dealers” might be engaged in fraudulent commerce of some kind (misrepresentation of product), catching weed dealers is unconstitutional as well. There is no provision, explicit or implied, in the U.S. Constitution that codifies an allowance for the federal or other government entities to prohibit what people are allowed to peacefully use or consume, or the sale of such substances to these consumers. Unless they’re akin to a “snake oil salesman” fraudulently promising medical benefits, or advertising purity levels that are inaccurate, they aren’t committing a crime. No victim no crime. The whole war on drugs is unconstitutional.
I’ve looked everywhere and I can not seem to find any info concerning recourse for aggrieved individuals under lawful intercept.
Who can I turn to? Where do I report my discoveries? I am a victim, I’m aware of the continued surveillance on my communications and I believe I’m entitled to compensation.
Rebecca – Topeka, Kansas
What protections are we supposed to utilize? My communications have been intercepted for over a year now and nobody will help…
….And every realtor, signs a 25 page document, swearing to act in their clients best interest….
You cannot stop violent police extremist without defunding police unions and FOP. Local law enforcement are using military operations and deadly force tactics to simply serve a search warrants. Serving a search warrant is now military operation with deadly force. Storming (no knock raids) someone’s home at 3:00 in the morning for minor crimes. Law enforcement create violence. Using massive use of deadly force on raids. Guerrilla Tactics by our warriors who have contempt for citizens rights and the constitution. The police view everyone not in law enforcement as enemy combatants who must be put down.
Don’t do anything stupid and you won’t need to worry.
One of the more interesting testimonies during the congressional Waco hearings was then-Rep Schumer (D-NY) snidely asking the lead Texas Ranger if the Rangers would have just walked up and politely knocked on the door to serve their search warrant — rather than attacking by surprise and with overwhelming deadly force.
Reply: “Yes sir, that’s probably exactly what we would have done.” [OWTTE]
*crickets*
I am guessing the author was too young to recall Tommy Tutone and his hit from the early 1980’s when he read that joke in the default password for Kingfish on page 45: “Step 2. Click the Restore button to automatically populate the default Passkey. (The KingFish default
Passkey is 8675309)” See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTdTwcmxyo to get edumacated.
Whole new renewed meaning to “let’s be jammin’….” Meanwhile, this shit is WAY inferior to drums, smoke signals, and… telepathy.
“Harris Corp.’s Stingray surveillance device has been one of the most closely guarded secrets in law enforcement for more than 15 years….”
LOL!!! Still denying and ignoring the elephant in the room as we’ve been telling/showing you how these devices have been used illegally for over a decade, yet again, here is ANOTHER article claiming ignorance to the facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLKuPPe1IhY
How are they claiming ignorance? The article explains how civil liberties organizations have known about Cell Site simulators for a long time, but haven’t been able to dispute law enforcement falsehoods because they haven’t had access to the source material. This is the first time they’ve had specific material they can’t point to and say “pants on fire” whenever law enforcement claims they aren’t doing mass surveillance.
Absolutely false and not true. Also, it’s only a very small part of a much larger covert criminal network and system which has been using covert military tech which has yet to be exposed. Think the cessna spy plane which is also a small part of the same system. Over a decade old now and the stories written is not even scratching the surface of what’s been going on in secret even though verifible documents have been provided to all agencies and news media. Let’s not get started on people on this very site, claiming to be civil rights activists are the very barriers from the facts and truth being exposed. Rico Act/treason is in play on a massive scale and there are a very few who have warned about this over a decade ago. Again factual documents/evidence have been provided to many which are just being ignored and has been for over a decade. I’m very familiar with the ACLU and there complete incompetence also.
Stingrays may be disrupting the communications infrastructure, including existing cellular towers.
Well lets hope that they do not let the local sheriff have a device that can mess with 5G. Self driving cars, drones, the smart electric grid, medical devices, robots, industrial controls and the internet of things should be fool proofed.
Nope I see that 5G will also provide Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane with “lawful access”.
Why wait for politicians to do something? With mobile security already a strong selling point, why haven’t we demand better security of cell networks and connected clients by the service providers?
Another great scoop, thank you! The lame stream media are losers.
Actually, page five of the Gemini Quick Start Guide PDF seems to indicate that a license code of some sort is required (not that those are particularly difficult to crack). And, of course, you need the hardware for it to be of much use. Not suprisingly, they nickel and dime us by licensing each protocol separately.
Who can I sue? There has to be a law against such treason. This govt. Is out of control on almost every aspect of “freedom” in this country and all the other countries we “protect” or “free” from tyranny. Warrants should be issued at the very least, and for good reason. Not marijuana. What a joke. Any lawyer that wants to work pro-bono, is a real patriot, and wants to make a name for themselves, please respond.
Time to put the name of Edward Snowden on every person’s cell phone contact list as a statment towards a worst than all kosher hitlerian-stalisnist-gestapo-stasi regimes combined, that while under the color of democracy, freedom and privacy are subverting them as the patriotic thing to do when it is plain treasonous. – Alejandro Grace Ararat.
Thank you Edward Snowden, Jesselyn Radack, J. Kirk Wiebe, William Binney and Thomas Drake who are labeled and considered dishonorable by the puppets of the corrupt establishment who subvert the constitutional rule of law for executive orders, and such being deemed as the patriotic thing to do while those exposing their wickedness are confined as treasonous. Disgusting is short.
The iDEN manual is specifically for iDEN networks (such as Nextel). If you look at section 1-6.1 of the operator manual, it only lists iDEN networks in the Americas.
iDEN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDEN
I love that one of these devices is currently activated in my neighborhood lol
iDEN is a kind of mobile network, specifically the one the former Nextel company operated. It’s still around, although none of the AT&T/Verizon/Spint/T-Mobile networks use it (and that includes all the MVNOs like Cricket and Virgin). So, there is little practical value in anything related to iDEN any more
I was hoping for a deeper explanation of what exactly can be intercepted. Use an iPhone as an example. All the data on the phone? Audio? Encrypted data in transit? Or just location based information?
RTFM
We’ll maybe get a new generation of awareness, politicians that aren’t blackmailed and a market with safeguards.
So Airplane Mode? What counter-measures are currently available to avoid as much as possible? I am of the view that this will backfire on Law Enforcement (LE) after the scope of surveillance is revealed.
I think it’s pretty clear. Americans are willing to give up privacy in the name of security. Of course, they will have neither.
Here’s an interesting article on these things, including the fact that low-cost versions might become widely available to the general public:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-10/what-happens-when-the-surveillance-state-becomes-an-affordable-gadget
Once criminal gangs start using them to track police car GPS locators and police cell phones, maybe the government will rethink this particular mass surveillance strategy. In which case, providers would upgrade networks to high-security connections to make the tactic impossible.
However, there are ways to detect the use of these IMSI-catching devices:
And, on why they would want to knock a connection from LTE to 2G:
So much STASI mentality these days in the U.S. government.
If I’m correct, I believe text and voice is still used on 2G while data is primarily used on LTE 4G. I thought I just read that somewhere but will find the source.
Providers have already rolled out Voice Over LTE. Otherwise, voice traffic will drop to 3G. SMS/MMS messaging can be delivered via LTE as well. As for 2G, most all of those networks have sunset dates at the first of 2017.
remember, entirely in addition to privacy concerns, these activities are illegal.
1. You need a license to transmit, from the FCC. The telecom owns the license, not the local police.
2. Interference with ongoing legal transmissions is a crime.
I wish the FED’s / STASI would realize it.
Thanks for the article and the docs! Now all we need is a political party willing to actually make this kind of spying by the police illegal. Democrats and Republicans can be counted upon… to do absolutely nothing to stop this crap.
IWPCHI
I believe the two political parties you’re looking for are the Libertarian and Green Parties. In addition to their presidential candidates, they are running candidates for Congress as well. If you see any of their candidates on your ballot, and really want to vote for someone to make this sort of spying illegal, vote for them.
OK, This leaves the populous transparent, what leaves the government agencies equally transparent?
Or is this like the non-proliferation treaty where we, the US government in this case, says you can’t have Nukes, but I can.
Asymmetrical hypocrisy, and bad, bad karma.
I wonder how often these are used at political rallies? Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump traveled all over the country holding rallies and they would have been perfect places to use these things.