Vendors abuse telco access for location tracking

Security researchers have exposed two surveillance campaigns exploiting global telecom infrastructure weaknesses to track individuals' phone locations. These campaigns, detailed by the Citizen Lab, likely represent a fraction of widespread abuse by surveillance vendors. The vendors operated as 'ghost' companies, piggybacking on legitimate cellular providers to access and track target location data. This exploitation leverages vulnerabilities in both the older SS7 protocol and the newer Diameter protocol, as telecom providers haven't always implemented necessary security protections. The findings highlight a deliberate, well-funded operation deeply integrated into the mobile signaling ecosystem, with some vendors using specific providers as entry points.