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New regulations will allow police to use cell-phone spying tools on South Africans

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GUEST - Loyiso Boyce – Cybersecurity expert and MD of CLYROFOR

Justice minister Ronald Lamola, on Friday, 19 May 2023, gazetted a five-year exemption from the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Act (RICA), effectively giving police the right to use a range of what would otherwise be illegal surveillance devices. The exemption means the South African Police Service (SAPS) can buy and use signal interception devices to access details about any cellular device in a given area — approval for which previous Justice ministers consistently withheld.

Among these are International Mobile Subscriber Identifier (IMSI) catchers, or “grabbers” — eavesdropping devices masquerading as regular cellular towers that harvest data from every mobile device connected to them. Theoretically, the police will be able to map the data gathered in this way to a person’s identity, as RICA requires telecommunications service providers to collect identifying information when you sign up
24 May 2023 4PM English South Africa Business News · Investing

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