Security flaws that allow hackers, spies or criminals listen to your phone calls and read your texts have been discovered by German researchers, according to the Washington Post.
In the wake of "The Fappening" and the Sony Hack, insecurity in security is at an all time high. The global network that routes calls and texts, the SS7 (Signaling System 7), was created in 1980 and has some obvious vulnerabilities, according to the Washington Post.
The holes in the system were actually built in for other reasons, like keeping calls connected as cell phone users walk or drive from one cell tower area to the next, but hackers take advantage of the low security of the network.
Anyone with the know-how can locate callers, listen to their calls, record encrypted texts and use the information for identity theft or other types of fraud, according to the Washington Post. Cellular carriers upgraded to 3G technology, but they still rely on SS7 to communicate between each other.
"It's like you secure the front door of the house, but the back door is wide open," Tobias Engel, one of the German researchers, told the Washington Post.
"Many of the big intelligence agencies probably have teams that do nothing but SS7 research and exploitation," said Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist for the ACLU and an expert on surveillance technology, according to the Washington Post. "They've likely sat on these things and quietly exploited them."
"After all the NSA and Snowden things we've heard, I guess nobody believes it's possible to have a truly private conversation on a mobile phone," Thomas Jarzombek of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party told the Washington Post. "When I really need a confidential conversation, I use a fixed-line."
