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“Attackers are now using increasingly sophisticated approaches in their attempts to track subscribers through the SS7 network,” said Brian Collins, chief executive officer of AdaptiveMobile. “The level of complexity detected through global tracking platforms should be of concern to operator networks who do not have sufficiently sophisticated controls in place to protect their subscribers.”

AdaptiveMobile has been working with operator networks around the globe to analyse their SS7 network data since launching its SS7 Protection in February of 2015. The Company has identified increasing cases of information harvesting, subscriber data collection and location tracking, and is now sharing evidence of multiple examples of location tracking platforms – based in countries around the world.

“Through our research we have detected location tracking platforms that are using more sophisticated packet combinations, multiple origination points and a range of attack possibilities to track the location of specific subscribers,” explains Cathal Mc Daid, chief intelligence officer of AdaptiveMobile and head of the Company’s Threat Intelligence Unit. “In one case we found evidence of a global SS7 monitoring platform executing near-simultaneous surveillance attacks from many countries in four different continents over a timespan of two minutes and twenty seconds in an attempt to track one specific subscriber.”

Sitting at the heart of more than 75 operator networks worldwide, AdaptiveMobile protects one-fifth of the world’s subscribers and is uniquely placed to identify, protect and remediate against the widest range of threats attacking mobile networks. Nominated for ‘Best Mobile Security or Anti-Fraud Product’ at this year’s Mobile World Congress, the Company’s SS7 Protection uses a tiered approach to identify and protect against emerging threats.