Archiv: Signalling System No. 7 (SS7) / Zentraler Zeichengabekanal Nummer 7 (ZZK-7) / telephone communication protocol / developed in the 1970s


26.07.2025 - 06:41 [ theHackerNews.com ]

Hackers can spy on your calls and track location, using just your phone number

(April 19, 2016)

The famous ‘60 Minutes‘ television show shocked some viewers Sunday evening when a team of German hackers demonstrated how they spied on an iPhone used by U.S. Congressman, then recorded his phone calls and tracked his movement through Los Angeles. (…)

The global telecom network SS7 is still vulnerable to several security flaws that could let hackers and spy agencies listen to personal phone calls and intercept SMSes on a potentially massive scale, despite the most advanced encryption used by cellular networks.

All one need is the target‘s phone number to track him/her anywhere on the planet and even eavesdrop on the conversations.

03.01.2021 - 09:45 [ Haaretz ]

A Shady Israeli Intel Genius, His Cyber-spy Van and Million-dollar Deals

(31.12.2020)

Aliada, according to the suit, is a group of cyberweapon companies whose products are branded under the name Intellexa. In May 2019, it added, the group recruited Eran Beck, a former head of the Military Intelligence’s cyber department, as its director of development.

18.12.2020 - 11:06 [ theGuardian.com ]

Israeli spy firm suspected of accessing global telecoms via Channel Islands

Invoices seen by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism suggest Rayzone, a corporate spy agency that provides its government clients with “geolocation tools”, used an intermediary in 2018 to lease an access point into the telecoms network via Sure Guernsey, a mobile operator in the Channel Islands.

Such access points, known in the telecoms industry as “global titles”, provide a route into a decades-old global messaging system known as SS7, which allows mobile operators to connect users around the world. It is not uncommon for mobile companies to lease out such access.

18.12.2020 - 10:58 [ Bureau of Investigative Journalism ]

Spy companies using Channel Islands to track phones around the world

The investigation has found that private intelligence companies are able to rent access from mobile phone operators and this can then be exploited to allow the tracking of the physical location of users across the world. They are also potentially able to intercept calls and other private data, including bank accounts and emails.

These intrusions, which are very widely exploited, rely on commands designed to help phone operators track their customers’ whereabouts. Such commands, known as “signals”, are sent via a kind of global switchboard for the telecoms industry called SS7.