The new Android 16 update has a feature that will warn you when someone uses a false and unanswered network for malicious purposes.
The attack uses a device known as “stingray”. The attacker sets up the device near a target he wishes to observe and imitates a legitimate cell tower. The stingray then encourages the mobile devices to connect to the tower, allowing the collection of unique identifiers (like IMEI) and even forcing the device on an older and more precarious protocol. The protocol allows attackers to intercept telephone calls and unacypted text messages.
Stingray is used in particular by the police, but can also be acquired by malicious people. Although there is an argument that they are useful for monitoring criminals in an investigation, they have high abuse potential. As a result, Google develops solutions to prevent devices from transmitting communications on unsecured cellular networks.
Google has been working on blocking these stingray devices for some time. With Android 15, Google added the management of the operating system when the network requires unique identifiers of a device or tries to force a new algorithm of Ciplement. These have directly thwarted the methods used by commercial lines and block them. User notification of these requests helps people to become aware of potential threats and protect them from surveillance.
The only problem, however, is that the only widely available feature is the possibility of deactivating 2G connections. As Android authority emphasizes that the problem with this approach is that the implementation of these protections requires changes to the telephone pilot of the phone. The functionality mentioned above requires a modem which supports version 3.0 of the IRADIO hardware abstraction layer of Android (HAL).
Source: Android authority
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