Cell site simulators (hereafter, CSS) have become commonplace amongst all levels of law enforcement as well as the military. The technology provides enough Signals Intelligence (hereafter, SIGINT) for entities to act on their proscribed goals, often euphemized in the military as Find, Fix and Finish. The pervasive existence of this technology in law enforcement has led to its concomitant use, even in cases that seem to use the data procured as the supporting evidence for the investigation itself, a chicken-and-egg situation. CSS are also colloquially known as “IMSI Catchers,” IMSI being the acronym for International Mobile Subscriber Identity. This data is essentially what a license plate is to a car. It is globally unique to the paying customer whose commercial account is attached to their legal identity. A myriad of other data is available when using CSS but it is logical as to why this specific data point is referred to in slang. CSS’ popularity and sophistication have grown c...
The advent of mobile cellular technology has been a boon for interconnectivity in the 21 st century. It enables communication on an unprecedented scale that pervades daily life. Said daily life includes the use by criminals, law enforcement as well as military opponents. This fact induces the need by all the above to exploit the technology to the fullest as evidenced by the development and usage of a myriad of technologies to include cell site simulators. In essence, this technology emulates the behavior of a cell phone tower for the purposes of surveillance and acute tracking of the location of a consumer’s mobile phone. As with the abrupt rise in cellular phone technology, its concurrent exploitation is equally dangerous to individual citizens as well as the health of a self-professed liberal democracy.