Ride the Lightning
Cybersecurity and Future of Law Practice Blog
by Sharon D. Nelson Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.
Federal Judge Will Rule on FBI's Use of "Stingray" Phone Surveillance
April 4, 2013
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's use of a controversial cell phone tracking device is being scrutinized by an Arizona federal court. Daniel Rigmaiden, a California man accused of identity theft and tax fraud, was arrested in 2008. Advocacy groups learned that the FBI used a stingray device – technology that simulates a cell phone tower to siphon the data of any mobile user within a certain vicinity. As you might expect, a battle ensued on whether its use violates Fourth Amendment protections against “unreasonable” search and seizure.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued before the court that it does.
Chris Soghoian, principal technologist for ACLU's speech, privacy and technology project, said that while stingray surveillance has been public knowledge since the mid-1990s, the courts have yet to take an adequate stand on whether its use is legal.
In addition to ACLU's concerns about innocent bystanders' mobile data being collected by stingrays, it challenges whether Rigmaiden's whereabouts were illegally obtained by the FBI, which obtained a court order (not a search warrant) to use the snooping device.
Rigmaiden and a group of conspirators were accused of filing approximately 1,900 fraudulent tax returns to garner more than $4 million in refunds, according to court documents. The alleged crime ring used approximately 175 different IP addresses to file the returns, and the investigation led law enforcement to believe an automated filing system was used by the group, as multiple fraudulent returns were quickly filed from a single IP address.
In an amicus brief filed last October by the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the stingray devices have been called “IMSI catchers” by technologists, because they capture International Mobile Subscriber Identity numbers, which are unique identifiers that can help authorities determine the location of mobile phones or air cards.
The FBI maintains that it deleted third-party mobile data collected in the Rigmaiden investigation, but ACLU and EFF stand by their grievances with stingray surveillance.
“It's basically like a game of Marco Polo," Soghoian said. “The [device] says Marco, and every phone in the area says, Polo. In terms of the use of this device with the FBI, there are a lot of concerns.”
The ruling on whether the government violated Rigmaiden's rights and whether the information collected must be thrown out, is expected in the next few weeks.
I'm following the case with interest – and particularly question whether the FBI, which seems to want all data, properly handles the data of the innocent civilians which is picked up in these sorts of investigations.
Thanks again to Dave Ries for passing this story along. Note that my partner/husband John Simek will give a demo of a very similar technology tomorrow at ABA TECHSHOW with Dave's son Chris. Scary tech indeed.
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