DHS warns of sharp rise in Chinese-made signal jammers it calls 'tools of terrorism'

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is concerned about the rate at which outlawed signal-jamming devices are being found across the US.

In a warning issued on Wednesday, it said it has seen an 830 percent increase in seizures of these signal jammers since 2021, specifically those made in China.

Signal-jamming devices are outlawed in the US, mainly because they can interfere with communications between emergency services and law enforcement.

While the Communications Act of 1934 effectively prohibits such devices, signal jammers of the type DHS is concerned about have only circulated in the last 20 to 30 years.

Authorities have paid special attention to relay attack devices in recent years – the types of hardware that can be used to clone signals used by systems such as remote car keys, although the first examples of these devices date back to the 1980s.

Likewise, Wi-Fi and cell phone jammers have only ...