The latest news reveals the case of Chinese mobile phone spying on American cellphones by exploiting telecom loopholes. It seems that the Caribbean telecom networks are incredibly vulnerable at present.
According to Gary Miller, no industry officials want people to get an idea about the seriousness of surveillance attacks. Mr. Miller was a tech security officer earlier, and he talks to the media stating that the public must know the situation.
Mr. Miller states that his idea regarding the Chinese mobile phone spying is based on years of research. He has studied several signaling traffic and threat reports over the years between domestic and foreign telecom operators. Moreover, he is openly announcing that he is suspicious that China is taking advantage of the Caribbean networks, especially Barbados.
The present problems include secret communications and signaling messages that help in call tapping. These aspects also help in tracking the roaming information of cellphone users. However, the issue here is that China is taking unfair advantage of all the available information. It seems they want to monitor the habits and location of the users and procure confidential information.
The Chinese mobile phone spying issue is not new.
If your cellphone is from Florida, it will be capable of tracking all your information even if you are in Oregon. That is the usual way in which mobile networks functions. The loophole here is that a common center mostly controls the mobile operators. Therefore, it is somehow easy for the Chinese to ostensibly abuse the networks.
Gary Miller recently reveals to the media that, according to his study, China’s attacks on the USA are more than that of any other country since 2018. Moreover, the maximum number of telecom attacks have come through the China Unicom network. The same is under the standard state operator. Besides, the incidents are not a collection of minor issues that show simple spying. What we find here are repeated attempts of mass data collection.
Miller states that there is a limit of attacks until we can term it as targeting high-profile sources. However, when the number of attacks reaches thousands in number, it qualifies for mass surveillance. It clearly shows that the Chinese networks are after valuable intelligence data of the USA. Miller also says that in 2019 the center of all the significant attacks was in Barbados.
All of the incidents together rings a bell, and that is what Mr. Miller is talking about. He reveals that everything was falling in a specific pattern when China Unicom was pinging users last year. The notifications were coming simultaneously with messages from local Caribbean operators. So, the fact that the China Unicom network was trying to tap local operators was evident.
Are the American Government agencies aware of all the issues?
Gary Miller says in a recent interview that the USA intelligence department is competent. It means that they can block the Chinese mobile phones spying on American users. However, the country’s government and the intelligence department feel that the priority is to make people aware. Everyone must become more conscious regarding the fact that every cellphone user in the country is vulnerable.
Mr. Miller openly speaks about the fact that the American government was already well aware of the loopholes. He states that Congress and all other national Agencies know everything for several years. However, the security recommendations of the country are not enough to fight back the attackers. Besides, no one follows the security regulations duly, which is the cause of such a difficult situation.
China Unicom Network is about to close down.
On the other hand, the China Unicom network is in outright denial of all the allegations. According to them, none of the Chinese national agencies are part of such surveillance. Newspapers suggest that the truth may be that the operators are still unaware of how they are being used in this situation.
In April 2020, the Federal Communications Commission issued a warning regarding the shutting down of China Telecom. According to Ajit Pai, the FCC Chairman, the USA government is worried after the Communist Party of China is tightening its grasp overall national corporations. Moreover, the American Security Department believes that China Telecom does not obey privacy and cybersecurity laws.