New Technology To Safeguard Cell Phone Hacking

Scientists at the University of Washington have developed a new system called SeaGlass that helps detect cell phone surveillance by modelling a city’s cellular landscape and identifying suspicious anomalies.

Cell phones are vulnerable to attacks from rogue cellular transmitters called International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) catchers, also known as cell-site simulators or Stingrays, surveillance devices that can precisely locate mobile phones, eavesdrop on conversations or send spam, said reports. Cell-site simulators work by pretending to be a legitimate cell tower that a phone would normally communicate with, and tricking the phone into sending back identifying information about its location and how it is communicating.