Flaw Lets Hackers Record Cellular Conversations, Track Location [View all]

Source: DSL Reports

Over the weekend 60 Minutes raised a few eyebrows with a report claiming that it simply takes a cell phone number to hack most cell phones. In the report, 60 minutes gives a new
iPhone to California Representative Ted Lieu, and then challenged a group of hackers to hack the device. They were immensely successful not because of vulnerabilities in the iPhone, but because of a vulnerability in Signaling System 7 (SS7, or Common Channel Signalling System 7 in the US), a series of protocols first built in 1975 to help connect phone carriers around the world.

The hackers were not only able to track the Representative's location data, but record his conversations.

The flaw isn't new; a group of German hackers
revealed the vulnerability in late 2014 . It's believed that the intelligence community has known about the vulnerability even earlier, and the hackers note that nothing has been done to shore up the flaw since German hacker Karsten Nohl first demonstrated it.

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Read more: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Flaw-Lets-Hackers-Record-Cellular-Conversations-Track-Location-136772