The FCC has established a task force to study how these groups are using them against targets in the U.S. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said in a letter earlier in August that his agency has the authority to study the the issue in order to ascertain who’s using Stingrays illegally and for what purposes, the Washington Post reported.
The U.S. government wants to know the extent to which criminals and foreign spies are using “Stingrays” against Americans.
A task force has been set up by the Federal Communications Commission to study how electronic surveillance devices, including those that are commercially available, are being used to electronically follow Americans, eavesdropping on phone calls and infecting devices with malware.
The particular focus of the FCC’s interest is the so-called Stingray, a platform also known as a IMSI catcher that intercepts mobile phone traffic. It is used by law enforcement and intelligent agencies worldwide to intercept unencrypted cellular traffic and is hard to detect. The Stingray is produced by IT companies who provide them to U.S spies, cops and other foreign clients.
IMSI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity.
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