60 Minute down under produced a James Bond style drama news story to tell us about two of the most dangerous cell phone exploits that are widely known by hackers and government agencies. It’s an entertaining overview of SS7 network flaw and how hackers use create fake cell phone towers with IMSI Catcher.
FULL SHOW “Bugged Tracked Hacked” 60 Minutes AU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bHEp3m4HkA
What they cover
Two Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks break cell phone wide open.
SS7
This is the cell phone network communication between companies. It’s used when you move from AT&T to Verizon or other carriers. And it has some well know flaws. SS7 allows anyone to tap the calls and active data of any cell phone, anywhere in the world. All they need is your phone number. Seriously. And your government is not burning the midnight oil or putting the screws to the mobile phone carrier networks to get it fixed.
IMSI catcher
This exploits the fact that cellular phone GSM specification requires a phone to authenticate to the network, but does not require the network to authenticate to the phone. So, hackers can spoof cell phone towers. Fake networks tell your phone to turn off encryption and then they monitor all of your phone data – calls, text messages, location…