Security researchers say they have identified signs of a massive espionage campaign that includes the theft of call records obtained through hacks of cell phone carrier networks.
The report states that over the past seven years, hackers have systematically hacked more than 10 cellular operators around the world. This allowed attackers to take possession of a huge amount of call records, including the time of calls made, as well as the location of subscribers.
A large-scale espionage campaign was discovered by researchers from Cybereason, which is based in Boston. Experts say that attackers can track the physical location of any client using the services of one of the hacked telecom operators.
According to experts, the hackers stole call records, which are detailed logs of metadata generated by telecom operators as they serve customers making calls. Although this data does not include recorded conversations or transmitted SMS messages, analysis of it can provide detailed insight into a person's daily life.
Cybereason representatives say that the first hacker attacks were recorded about a year ago. Hackers hacked into various telecom operators, establishing permanent access to networks. Experts believe that such actions by attackers are aimed at receiving and sending changing data from the database of telecom operators without installing additional malicious software.
Researchers said that hackers were able to penetrate the network of one of the telecom operators using a vulnerability in the web server, which was accessed from the Internet. Due to this, the attackers were able to gain a foothold in the internal network of the telecom operator, after which they began stealing data about user calls. In addition, hackers filtered and compressed the volumes of downloaded data, collecting information about specific targets.
As attacks on cellular operators continue, Cybereason representatives would not say which companies were targeted. The message only said that some of the companies are large telecom operators. It was also noted that hackers were not found to be interested in the North American telecom operator.
Source: 3dnews.ru