Stingray.

A commercial cell-site simulator originally made by Harris Corporation that mimics a base station to collect IMSIs and track or intercept mobile devices. It belongs to the Attacks & Threats category of cybersecurity.

A commercial cell-site simulator originally made by Harris Corporation that mimics a base station to collect IMSIs and track or intercept mobile devices.

Stingray is the best-known IMSI catcher, made by Harris Corporation (now L3Harris) and sold to U.S. and allied law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Models such as StingRay, StingRay II, Hailstorm and KingFish operate as rogue base stations: they emit a stronger signal than legitimate towers, force phones to register and capture IMSI, IMEI and signal-strength data for location triangulation. Older variants force a 2G downgrade and can intercept calls and SMS; newer Hailstorm/Crossbow units target LTE. Use without a warrant has driven multiple court rulings; ACLU records confirm widespread deployment. Defences include 5G SUCI, IMSI-catcher detectors, mandatory mutual authentication and disabling 2G in handsets.

Defences for Stingray typically combine technical controls and operational practices, as detailed in the full definition above.

Common alternative names include: StingRay, Hailstorm, KingFish, Cell-site simulator.