JawnCon 0x2 - Michael Raymond - Stingrays: Who Ya Gonna Call?

Who ya gonna call when a Stingray shows up at your con, protest, or street corner? These phantom cell-towers formally known as cell-site simulators (CSS) masquerade as legit cell towers, tricking your phone into connecting so they can slurp up IMSIs, track devices, and sometimes even intercept communications. The problem? They operate in stealth mode, and despite years of rumors, court cases, and conspiracy theories, we're still flying blind. Nobody really knows how often we're caught in their dragnet. This talk will show how Rayhunter works, why it fills a critical gap in current detection methods, and what early field ops are revealing. Attendees will learn how to spin up their own Rayhunter, contribute to the collective hunt, share the logs, and help the community map one of the most secretive surveillance technologies in existence.