Telecom security company Enea has named a spying group SilentAir that used hacked equipment inside Asian mobile operators to intercept the calls and texts of selected people, mostly in Taiwan, The Hacker News reports. Enea found attack sources in at least six Asian countries, assessed with high confidence it’s a state-level actor, and linked it to China only with low confidence.
SilentAir sent signaling attacks into the shared IPX network over SS7 and Diameter. For interception, it sent the target’s home network an UpdateLocation message claiming the hacked gear now served the target’s phone. Some worked, and Enea saw 2FA codes intercepted right after the diversion took effect. Interception made up 18.3% of SilentAir’s attacks, versus 2.1% for a typical surveillance company in Enea’s earlier research. Some targets were political and government VIPs. Enea says SilentAir has been disrupted for now but could return.
My take
I’ve said it for years: SMS is not a real second factor. The phone network runs on trust between operators, and this shows what happens when that trust gets abused. Move your important accounts to passkeys, hardware keys or an authenticator app.
God Bless, and May the Source Be with You!
