Posts Tagged ‘Edinburgh’
Scotland: Prison authorities confirm use of IMSI catchers (UK)
Tuesday, June 28th, 2016
The Scottish Prison Service has confirmed that it used IMSI catchers (aka “stingrays”) at two prisons in Scotland. This is the first confession of official stingray use by UK authorities, though they are almost certainly being used elsewhere in the country as well.
The SPS are using both mobile and static stingray devices at HMP Shotts in Lanarkshire and HMP Glenochil near Alloa. The SPS spent more than £1.2 million spying on both prisons. It appears that the SPS were trialing stingray tech at Shotts and Glenochil before potentially rolling it out to other prisons.
While stingrays can be used to snoop on conversations or otherwise gather intelligence, it appears that in this case the SPS were using IMSI catchers to stamp out mobile phone use at the prisons (it’s supposedly a crime to use a mobile phone in prison). IMSI catchers work by tricking nearby mobile devices to connect to them, rather than an official base station. The stingray can then be used to triangulate the user’s location, or to simply block the connection. (more…)
Tags: Edinburgh, HMP Edinburgh, HMP Glenochil, HMP Shotts, IMSI catchers, Repression, Scotland, UK
Posted in Social Control