Stingray-Like Device Enables Blackmail In S. Africa 50
New submitter PalmAndy writes to note that: South African Police nabbed some criminals using an IMSI catcher device, similar to a Stingray, in Johannesburg. The article says that it was made in Israel and is worth $2 million. A follow-on story says that it was used for tender manipulation and blackmail of Government officials. A corrupt government official helped procure this device, which in theory is only sold to goverments."
Doesn't sound so bad (Score:5, Funny)
A follow-on story says that it was used for tender manipulation
Ooh. That sounds kinda nice.
Re: (Score:2)
Heh. That was my first thought as well.
Re:You are the Racist (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Do not project your racism on others
Says the guy who never drove down the wrong neighborhood in .. let's see ... oh yeah, ANY american inner city. Don't bring up slavery like it's some magical answer to everything either - everyone, and I do mean everybody has an ancestor that was a slave. And native americans, jews, and others have also faced terrible atrocities but they didn't embrace an anti-achievement gangsta crime culture because of it.
As long as you PC types refuse to even recognize these facts, let alone provide a good answer to them
Re: (Score:1)
Cue the racists who will blame Israel for the actions of blacks.
But all blacks everywhere are perpetual victims so they cannot be held responsible for the choices they make. Treating them just like everybody else - by holding them responsible for what they do - would be racist, somehow. Also you should feel guilty for things that happened a century ago that you had no control over. For Justice!
Re: (Score:1)
"chicle"? Sorry, that's a baffling word.
Re: (Score:3)
It's a large piece of gum, much as a "chiclet" is a small piece of gum.
How all that relates to terrorism is beyond me, though.
Dyslexia is bad, mkay? (Score:1)
Are you dyslexic or something? Obviously, it was intended to be "cliche", it was close enough - 2 characters traded places, and the context was more than clear...
Re: (Score:2)
This is very true but, it does beg the question of, why can they do and why can they do it?
We all know security through obscurity is no real security at all, especially in a wide spread system. So, nearly everyone is a walking broadcaster now, putting out trackable EM pulses....awesome. Isn't the elephant in the room really the implications of that?
So the Israeli's built it and said "governments only". Even if that worked, it means the devices can be made. $2 million makes sense over developing your own rig
define "tender" (Score:5, Informative)
Tender [wikipedia.org]
A call for tenders, or invitation to tender (ITT) (often called tender for short) is a special procedure for generating competing offers from different bidders looking to obtain an award of business activity in works, supply, or service contracts. They are usually preceded by a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ).
sounds like they used it to win government contracts and blackmail government officials that didn't play nice.
Dunno (Score:4, Interesting)
OK I know long cons need some investments, à la little fish to get a big fish, but a 2 million McGuffin just to maybe get something to blackmail is a bit far fetched IMHO.
Re: (Score:3)
The article says that it's worth $2 million, not that that is what it cost. Something like this needs to have a very large profit margin because of (1) a limited target audience and (2) the risk involved in needing to win a tender, which might not happen. So the actual cost is likely to be far less than $2 million. Besides, it's not unusual at all for large investments to be made in an attempt to win a tender, particularly when the investors are confident of winning, and the fact that the device itself can
Re: (Score:2)
I doubt that it is worth $2M. I suspect that $2M is the list price for this device, but since it is a first-generation device it is probably sold with a very large discount. This particular unit might be a used device, returned to the manufacturer.
Re: (Score:3)
That's true. I had skimmed the article and jumped to the false conclusion that they were blackmailing officials into accepting the use of the very device that was being used to blackmail them.
What it actually claims is that a "top gold industry businessman" and a "bank employee" imported this illegally from Israel, with the help of a "senior government official", in order to secure (through blackmail) lucrative government contracts that might otherwise not have been awarded to them ("multibillion-rand" acco
Re: (Score:2)
Unless the tender is for multi-billion defense contracts (I don't have any information, didn't RTFA, but 2m to get a 2B contract is sound investment!)
Re: (Score:2)
Or, realistically, many smaller contracts.
There aren't a lot of 2B contracts out there, but there are plenty of small ones worth a paltry few million that would easily fly under the radar because those aren't the big, shiny ones. Barely worth investigation if there are some shenanigans at play.
"Stingray-like" (Score:1)
"Stingray" is a trademark name for a device that is generically called IMSI-catcher. You wouldn't call a smartphone an "iPhone-like device".
Re: (Score:3)
You fail to understand how language works.
The term "Stingray" has gotten lots of press while the phrase "IMSI-catcher" is unknown to most people. Relating a device to the most commonly known term for it is normal.
It's no different than Scotch tape being used to refer to any brand of cellophane tape and Kleenex being used to refer to any brand of facial tissue.
Re:"Stingray-like" (Score:4, Informative)
"Stingray" is a trademark name for a device that is generically called IMSI-catcher. You wouldn't call a smartphone an "iPhone-like device".
"Ignorance" is a term often used to describe those asking for a pair of Vise Grips to get a better hold on the power of brand marketing without being able to grasp the irony that they don't know the tool by any other name...
Re: (Score:3)
Remember Steve Irwin - those things are deadly
Doesn't matter (Score:1)
This doesn't matter. Everything is wonderful now that the country is democratic with free and fair elections.
Good example for encryption (Score:5, Insightful)
New jobs (Score:4, Informative)
For security people scanning for these devices. I'm sure an "official" IMSI catcher detector will cost millions as well, however, there are free detection programs for rooted Android phones, like https://github.com/SecUpwN/And... [github.com] and https://opensource.srlabs.de/p... [srlabs.de]
No surprise at all (Score:1)
And that will not remain the first instance. Any anti-security device used by governments will sooner r later make it into the hands of criminals. There will also be homemade ones around, as building them is not that hard and a lot cheaper than 2 Million. The problem is that the encryption of the mobile phone networks sucks, because governments (like the US one) want it that way. Now they are endangering everybody with their stupidity.