All phones prone to a Global cellular network vulnerability

Almost everyone in the current world uses a phone, as it is a technological device it stands a chance of being exposed to vulnerabilities. We have seen recent threats to some of the most popular operating systems including security loopholes in Android and iOS. But the devices of these operating systems are in a limited people’s hands. The biggest threat that can arise is when there is a threat to the whole global cellular network. It includes every single phone that is running on a network.

It has been found by some of the most prolific security researchers that a vulnerability in the Signaling System Seven (SS7) has been exploited to track location, see messages and phone calls on any type of smart phone in the planet. This is one of the biggest potential threats that has found its way through phones. Through this vulnerability, anyone sitting from anywhere can track a phone without the consent of the person who is the owner of the device. It is certainly very risky and can put a lot of people in trouble.

A German hacker named Karsten Nohl demonstrated very efficiently on how he leveraged this loophole to track the personal details of the iPhone which is owned by US Congressman Ted Lieu. This hack proved that no smart phone is safe and a hacker with proficiency can easily attack any phone device he wants.
To this tracking scene, Ted Lieu gave a comment on national television that said, “First, it’s really creepy, and second, it makes me angry”

The major problem that has occurred is in the SS7 or the Signaling System Number 7. It is the only telephony signaling protocol that is widely used by more than 800 operators throughout the world. This protocol is used to exchange information with one another and other major features include cross carrier billing and enabling roaming. This means that almost all the phones use this protocol to get even the simplest things done.
Even if one of the telecom operators is hacked, it means everyone who is using the service is exposed to the vulnerability. This also lets the hacker access all the information on a large scale including all the phone calls, text messages, billing information, relaying meta data and subscribers data.

According to major reports these vulnerabilities have been existing in the SS7 since the 2014 roll out. This is quite a serious problem which should have been addressed till now but experts are working on it.
Ted Lieu further stated that, “The people who knew about this flaw [or flaws] should be fired, you can’t have 300-some Million Americans—and really, right, the global citizenry — be at risk of having their phone conversations intercepted with a known flaw, simply because some intelligence agencies might get some data.”

The only way to be safe of this loophole is to encrypt all your data before it leaves your smart phone.