Security Flaws Let Anyone Listen To Your Cell Phone Calls
- 9 years ago
The globally used cell phone network called Signal System 7, or SS7 allows for mobile communications to operate effectively, but according to German researchers, there are also some major security issues.
The globally used cell phone network called Signaling System 7, or SS7 allows for mobile communications to operate effectively, but according to German researchers, there are also some major security issues.
SS7 is used to route calls between cell phone towers while users are mobile, and allows users in different networks to call, or send text messages and pictures to each other.
Tobias Engel, founder of technology privacy company Sternraute, and Karsten Nohl from Security Research Labs in Germany discovered two ways that hackers would be able to eavesdrop on conversations or text messages, even from encrypted transmissions.
Billions of people rely on the SS7 network, but computer hackers and government spies can use the vulnerable system to intercept or record phone calls and text messages.
Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, is quoted as saying: “Many of the big intelligence agencies probably have teams that do nothing but SS7 research and exploitation. They’ve likely sat on these things and quietly exploited them.”
Some cell phone companies are working towards becoming more secure by using 3G or 4G to send messages between people using the same network.
But for now, people on different networks still have to use SS7 to communicate.
The globally used cell phone network called Signaling System 7, or SS7 allows for mobile communications to operate effectively, but according to German researchers, there are also some major security issues.
SS7 is used to route calls between cell phone towers while users are mobile, and allows users in different networks to call, or send text messages and pictures to each other.
Tobias Engel, founder of technology privacy company Sternraute, and Karsten Nohl from Security Research Labs in Germany discovered two ways that hackers would be able to eavesdrop on conversations or text messages, even from encrypted transmissions.
Billions of people rely on the SS7 network, but computer hackers and government spies can use the vulnerable system to intercept or record phone calls and text messages.
Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union, is quoted as saying: “Many of the big intelligence agencies probably have teams that do nothing but SS7 research and exploitation. They’ve likely sat on these things and quietly exploited them.”
Some cell phone companies are working towards becoming more secure by using 3G or 4G to send messages between people using the same network.
But for now, people on different networks still have to use SS7 to communicate.