Bad Connection : Uncovering Global Telecom Exploitation by Covert Surveillance Actors – publication
The investigation ‘Bad Connection‘ by Citizen Lab uncovers two sophisticated telecom surveillance campaigns and, for the first time, links real-world attack traffic to mobile operator signalling infrastructure.
The findings expose how suspected commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) exploit the global telecom interconnect ecosystem, leverage private operator networks, and conduct covert location tracking operations that can persist undetected for years. Israeli telecom infrastructure was used to track citizens in more than ten countries over the past three years, according to a report published recently by the digital research group Citizen Lab. The findings, reviewed by Haaretz in recent weeks, expose how efforts to upgrade phone network infrastructures built in the 1970s for the smartphone era still leave even the most advanced devices exposed to surveillance. The report describes two separate tracking operations, each likely run by a commercial firm selling surveillance technologies to governments around the world. One was also found to have exploited Israeli geolocation technology to track targets, using networks belonging to 019Mobile and Partner Communications, although both Israeli companies denied any involvement. A second, more sophisticated operation is linked to a Swiss firm at the center of a 2023 Haaretz investigation for supplying Israeli surveillance companies, including Rayzone, which develops and sells cyber intelligence technologies to government agencies around the world.
Links:
Ghost Operators: How Israeli Telecoms Were Exploited to Track Citizens Worldwide
Global telecom networks ‘hijacked’ by Israeli firms for mass surveillance operation: Report
