At least as of today, most phones have an option to turn off 2g but that isn't a default.
I wonder if this mostly hit international SIMs, since they wouldn’t be running the same level of SIM code to prefer various network locks like a local SIM.
Helps you stay under the radar and gov services over SMS is a lot more advanced outside of Canada if you want to do some fraud.
Android has it as a toggle: https://source.android.com/docs/security/features/cellular-s...
iPhone disables it for phones in lockdown mode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_Broadcast
They are also interfering with connections and attempting downgrade attacks to do 2G SMS messages as well (and is likely where Canadian carriers were picking up the 'millions' of attacks against its network and failed authentication attempts).
Amusingly this was all also caught because of Telus reviewing those SMS messages that were reported as spam from people on iOS/Android and realizing that the messages weren't being terminated inside the cell network at all when they tried tracing them out and suspected that this was the case.
[1] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-sim-farms-like-the-o...
Rub a couple brain cells together and you might see that the comment you’re replying to has a different context.
> This wasn’t targeting a single individual or business. It had the ability to reach thousands of devices at once.
This statement reads as AI-assisted — kinda interesting to see, because I am not sure it even is? This type of formal speech language is basically unintelligible from slop now.
nubinetwork•1h ago
panny•1h ago
Jolter•1h ago
1. The Stingray eavesdrops, but avoids interfering with user traffic
2. The stingray is operated by law enforcement, not by fraudsters looking to steal your money
QuantumNomad_•1h ago
Like, the phones happily connect to these fake towers because the signal is strongest from that one and there is no authentication to verify who the tower belongs to, nor encryption of SMSes?
mc32•1h ago
anigbrowl•26m ago
rdevilla•20m ago