Canadian authorities arrested three men for operating an “SMS blaster,” a rogue cellular base station that lured nearby phones to connect and pushed phishing texts appearing to come from trusted organizations. The Toronto Police investigation, dubbed Project Lighthouse, seized devices after estimating millions of mobile network entrapments and warned users to treat SMS as insecure and use end-to-end encrypted channels; #SMSBlaster #ProjectLighthouse
Keypoints
- Operators used mobile “SMS blaster” devices that impersonated legitimate cellular towers to push phishing texts.
- The rogue stations trick phones to connect by emitting stronger signals, enabling mass distribution without needing phone numbers.
- Toronto Police’s Project Lighthouse seized equipment, arrested three men, and estimated 13 million instances of network entrapment.
- Devices connected to rogue towers were temporarily disconnected from legitimate networks and could not reach emergency services.
- Authorities recommend disabling 2G downgrades on Android where possible, avoiding links in SMS, and using end-to-end encrypted channels for sensitive data.