[liberationtech] Revealed: Saudis suspected of phone spying campaign in US

[Yosem Companys]

Saudi Arabia appears to be exploiting a weakness in the global mobile
telecommunications network to track its citizens as they travel around the U.S.,
according to a whistleblower who has revealed millions of supposedly secret
tracking requests, the Guardian reports. The whistleblower, who wants to expose
vulnerabilities in a global messaging system called SS7, revealed millions of
secret tracking requests emanating from Saudi Arabia over a four-month period
beginning in November 2019. The tracking requests, which sought to establish the
US location of Saudi-registered phones, appeared to originate from Saudi’s three
biggest mobile phone companies: since there was “no other technical reason” for
them, the whistleblower accused Saudi Arabia of “weaponizing mobile
technologies” in a systematic spying campaign. The decades-old SS7 global
messaging system allows mobile operators to connect users around the world. It
also enables tracking of phones, which has been a cause for concern by security
experts.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/29/revealed-saudis-suspected-of-phone-spying-campaign-in-us
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