China is suspected of targeting, tracking and intercepting the calls of tens of thousands of mobile phone users in the US by tapping into decades-old vulnerabilities in global telecommunications networks through mobile networks in the Caribbean, a US mobile network security expert has questioned after analyzing sensitive signal data, the UK’s Health Newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The company involved, China Unicom, denied ina statement that it had accessed the international telecommunications network to monitor mobile phone users who had attacked the United States.
“Signalling message” is the phrase under which instructions are given by a telecommunications operator across a global network and the owner of the phone does not know it; It allows telecommunications to negotiate mobile phones for subscribers, connect to other mobile phone users and assess roaming charges, but may be used for illegal purposes such as tracking, monitoring or intercepting communications.
Gary Miller, a former head of mobile network security in Washington state, suspects the Chinese Communist Party is using a government-controlled operator of mobile networks to send signalling messages to US users travelling abroad. He found that China carried out the most surveillance attacks on U.S. mobile phone users over 3G and 4G networks in 2018, most of which involved China Unicom, and questioned the likelihood of a government-sponsored spying campaign. He also mentioned that some users who appeared to be targets of China Unicom were also targets of two carriers in Barbados and the Bahamas.
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