> capability to geolocate millions of individuals
I guess Starlink could easily geolocate every 4G/5G phone IMIE with huge direct-to-celll attennas
I guess Starlink could easily geolocate every 4G/5G phone IMIE with huge direct-to-celll attennas
Answer delayed by hours due to HN rate limiting.
None? As I said I have not seen SS7 for a decade+ in USA/Canada. IMEI catches has nothing to do with SS7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVyu7NB7W6Y
Are you saying the SS7 messages they're looking at of a Canadian telephone subscriber just aren't there?
And this is the EFF saying in July 2024 that the FCC should really make telcos address vulnerabilities in SS7:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/07/eff-fcc-ss7-vulnerable...
Are you saying they're just wrong, those SS7 networks don't exist in the USA?
I mean, the article links the FCC request-for-comment on SS7 networks. Just as a quote: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-308A1.pdf
The Signaling System 7 (SS7) and Diameter protocols play a critical role in
U.S. telecommunications infrastructure supporting fixed and mobile service
providers in processing and routing calls and text messages between networks,
enabling interconnection between fixed and mobile networks, and providing call
session information such as Caller ID and billing data for circuit switched
infrastructure. Over the last several years, numerous reports have called
attention to security vulnerabilities present within SS7 networks and suggest
that attackers target SS7 to obtain subscribers’ location information.
It sounds like you're talking mince.
If your claim is that there is literally no SS7 in US and Canadian telephone networks, then that is straight-up wrong. It exists in every network that still supports 2G/3G wireless protocols and classic PSTN standards. It was replaced in 4G/5G and SIP, but that requires your operator only supports those protocols and doesn't continue to support the old protocols. If it does, it will still have SS7 signalling and will still be susceptible to attacks (though it is free to run its own security to block them).
If your claim is that you haven't seen SS7 in a decade, then sure, maybe you haven't. But given there is actual, ongoing spying, impersonation, etc., that can be demonstrated in North America in 2024, and everyone involved says "it's due to SS7", and you're out here saying it's-so-rare-you-haven't-seen-in-a-decade, then what exactly is happening? What are the hackers using then, when the experts say they're exploiting SS7, if you insist it's not there?
Why did the GSMA publish this security paper in 2019? https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/technologies/secur...
Why are they promoting a Code of Conduct for GT lessees? https://www.gsma.com/solutions-and-impact/technologies/secur...
If you claim there are no SS7 networks in the USA or Canada, please explain:
1) why the FCC believes they exist and need to be secured, as per their March 2024 note
2) what the UMTS networks, still operational in Canada, are using for messaging (note the 2025 dates in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3G#Phase-out for Canada; 2G/3G is still alive and well there. And I note that most of the 3G phase out in the USA was in 2022, not in 2014 which is what they'd have to be for you to not have seen SS7 for a decade)
3) what the POTS networks, still operational in the USA and Canada, are using for messaging (noting that FCC 19-72 only removes the requirement on ILECs to provide UME Analog Loops to CLECs, and does not require them to shut down POTS networks entirely by August 2022. For example, AT&T only plans to have transitioned 50% of its POTS network by 2025)
SS7 only gets into the picture after the handset has connected to the home network, from what I understand (n.b. not a telco engineer). The IMEI is exposed to the network, but only to your network and only after the handset sets up an encrypted and authenticated connection with it.
5G uses a thing called a GUTI to identify handsets, not an IMEI. Think of it like a GUTI being a temporary IPv6 address allocated for a few hours by DHCP, and the IMEI being like a browser cookie. IMEI is exposed to your home network and networks you roam onto, but merely being in range of a tower doesn't expose it, and it's never transmitted in the clear over the air.
Also, within a network most of the components don't get access to the IMEI either.
The federal government wouldn't pay hundreds of millions of dollars[0] to catch one or two fishing boats.
[0] https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_N6600122C0065_970...