IN APRIL of 2014, three men were shot when a drug deal turned sour on a tree-lined residential street in Baltimore. The city’s police department quickly linked the crime to Kerron Andrews, a dreadlocked 22-year-old, but could not find him at his registered address. Agents used phone records to determine Mr Andrews’ general location, but instead of going door-to-door until they located him, they opted for something far more efficient: a Hailstorm. Using the device, they tracked Mr Andrews directly to an acquaintance’s sofa, between the cushions of which he had stuffed the gun used in the shooting.
The Hailstorm is a more advanced version of the StingRay, a surveillance device that operates by mimicking a cellular tower, forcing all nearby mobile phones to reveal their unique identifying codes, known as IMSI numbers. By crosschecking the IMSI numbers of suspects’ phones with those collected by “cell-site simulators” such as Hailstorm and StingRay, law enforcement can pinpoint people with astonishing precision. The tools have been used to trail suspects to specific apartment units in apartment blocks and find them on moving buses on busy...Continue reading
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