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The analogy with license plate detection appears quite accurate. At first glance this scheme appeared akin to gathering wifi MAC address broadcasts, but the pi
by quarterwave 12y ago
The analogy with license plate detection appears quite accurate.
At first glance this scheme appeared akin to gathering wifi MAC address broadcasts, but the picture of the box shown in the article has a Tx antenna co-ax connector (looks like SMA). Then there is the question of SIM authentication for service. I don't suppose the cops are going to provide 4G service for free (there is also the issue of service collision and spectrum allocation) so probably what happens is that the SIM data is handshaked using some duplex protocol (hence the need for Tx in the base station), but no connection is made.
- chmars 12y agoFull interception and not 'only' the collection of metadata is possible. IMSI catchers can also be used to block mobile phone usage in an area or send SMS to users in an area (for example to participants in a demonstrations, already done in the Ukraine). Without full interception, a hidden ID check is IMHO a good analogy: Instead of stopping all persons in an area in order to ask them for their IDs, you collect meta data on all mobile phones and use these data to identify the persons in the area.