A team of journalists have discovered a large-scale network of sophisticated surveillance equipment that spies on people’s phones across London, amid a growing black market for the same technology worldwide. Vice News found multiple instances of catchers – also known as stingrays or cell-site simulators – across London including the UK parliament, a peaceful anti-austerity protest, and at the Ecuadorian embassy (where Julian Assange is being held). Vice News reports: A former senior surveillance insider also confirmed to VICE News that they have been used by UK police. The portable devices are typically used by state law enforcement. They monitor thousands of phones at a time, and are capable of intercepting calls, text messages, and emails. After going undercover, however, VICE News was offered an IMSI catcher for $15,000 from a company that claimed to have sold the devices to private companies and state law enforcement all over the world — including Russia, Africa, and the US. VICE News could not determine whether the signals it detected in London belonged to state apparatus, in part because of a UK law enforcement policy of refusing to discuss IMSI catchers on national security grounds. IMSI catchers work by pretending to be mobile phone base stations, which connect our [...]