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Hackers break into congressman’s smartphone using just his phone number

April 19, 2016

Remember those movie scenes where the protagonists are trying to track someone down, and they have to keep them on the phone until the police or agency can pinpoint the perp’s location? They usually need about 1 minute or so for the tracking software to work, but the bad guys always seem to know exactly when to hang up. Well, as impressive as that whole process was, it’s old news now. During a phone hacking piece on 60 Minutes, CBS News discussed – and demonstrated with help from hackers – just how vulnerable our smartphones really are. To emphasize the urgency of this matter, the hackers even broke into US Representative Ted Lieu’s smartphone, tracked his movements, and eavesdropped on his conversations just by knowing his phone number. The hacking took place with the US Congressman’s accord, of course.

Most of us don’t realize it, but smartphones are becoming extensions of ourselves. Because they make our life so much simpler (most of the time) we tend to use a lot of personal and professional data. This creates in return access ways for hackers to our daily routine, financial data, or even other devices linked to our smartphone. John Hering, cofounder of Lookout, made a great observation – “people don’t really think about their phones as computers”. Essentially we hold supercomputers in our pockets, with better and more advanced technology than the first space craft that took man to the moon. That also means that smartphones have become high-value targets for hackers.

All phones are the same

The journey into the mobile hacking world begins in Germany, at Security Research Labs. Advisers on computer security to Fortune 500 companies by day, and researchers by night, this super team of international hackers spends most nights testing various devices for vulnerabilities. We sometimes hear the phrase (mostly in sports) the best defense is a strong offense, which seems to be the strategy in this case as well. The team tries to find vulnerabilities before the bad guys do.

One of the members of the team, Karsten Nohl – a German hacker, with a doctorate in computer engineering from the University of Virginia – says that all phones are the same, there isn’t one that’s safer than the other. Well, there might be differences in some cases, but on this particular vulnerability found by the hacker team, it doesn’t really matter what device you use.
Signaling System No. 7 (SS7) is a protocol used to connect phone carriers worldwide. More than 800 telecommunication companies allow their networks to interoperate through the SS7 routing protocol. It’s what connects different networks, but also different continents. This is why it doesn’t matter what type o smartphone you use.

The team of hackers found an SS7 vulnerability which can track your location, eavesdrop on your conversations, or even read your texts using just your phone number. That’s right, if a hacker can find out your phone number, he can pretty much control the data your network can.

Hacking a US Congressman’s phone to prove a point

To demonstrate that this vulnerability is real, Nohl’s group broke into New York Representative Ted Lieu’s phone, with the knowledge and approval of the congressman, obviously. CBS sent an off-the-shelf iPhone to Representative Lieu – which has a computer science degree from Stanford, and the congressman agreed to use the phone to talk to his staff.

Nohl’s team only received the congressman’s phone number, and that’s all the hackers needed to take advantage of the SS7 vulnerability. Every number that called Representative Ted Lieu’s phone was exposed to the same vulnerability, since the hackers could save those phone numbers. After hearing himself recorded in CBS’s live demonstration, the congressman had an interesting reaction:

– Excerpts from the interview

Sharyn Alfonsi (CBS): What is your reaction to knowing that they were listening to all of your calls?

Rep. Ted Lieu: I have two. First, it’s really creepy. And second, it makes me angry.

Sharyn Alfonsi (CBS): Makes you angry, why?

Rep. Ted Lieu: They could hear any call of pretty much anyone who has a smartphone. It could be stock trades you want someone to execute. It could be calls with a bank.

Sharyn Alfonsi (CBS): So give us an idea, without being too specific, of the types of people that would be in a congressman’s phone.

Rep. Ted Lieu: There are other members of Congress– other elected officials. Last year, the president of the United States called me on my cellphone. And we discussed some issues. So if the hackers were listening in, they would know that phone conversation. And that’s immensely troubling.

What’s more troubling is that – according to Nohl – this vulnerability is an open secret among intelligence agencies for some time. And why would an agency want to close a way to listen to conversations around the globe, right? Upon hearing this fact, Representative Ted Lieu said that the people who knew about this flaw should be fired.

So what’s the bad news for smartphone users?

The bad news is that anything is hackable. John Herind said that in today’s world there are only two types of companies/people: those who have been hacked and realize it, and those who have been hacked and haven’t. Despite making good decisions, users are still exposed, and unfortunately, there’s really not much an individual can to when vulnerabilities like the SS7 flaw exist.

Is there any good news?

Well, the good news is that more and more hackers dedicate their efforts into helping users worldwide, and keeping the bad guys away from our devices. To be honest, at this point it seems that only by using older methods that don’t involve much tech, we can keep our most important data safe. We will just have to put our trust in the hackers that are fighting on the user’s side.