How Vulnerable Are Phone Carriers To Cyber Attacks?

Living in the modern world, it can be quite tough to predict how a cyber attack may or may not intersect with your life. Here, we will talk about some of the main ways cyber attacks could take place, and how vulnerable a carrier may be.

Are mobile phones more vulnerable than other devices?

Since we all carry phones in our pockets every day, we might be a bit concerned about whether or not they are more vulnerable than rarer items, like laptops and tablets. There is some truth to this worry, and it lies in how a mobile phone network operates.

To break things down quite simply, the mobile phone network can be explained in terms of layers. At the very top of things are our phones. Directly supporting those is the network of cell towers in the world. Supporting and maintaining those is the mobile phone carrier that maintains those towers. Connecting and supporting all of those carriers on the internet as a whole.

On the one hand, this is a really convenient way for our phone network to function. It’s straightforward and simple—all phones interact with all other phones in the same way.

This is also a bit of a disadvantage. Because we know what all phone interactions are likely to look like, hackers can create malicious interactions designed to appear perfectly normal.

This is quite different from how, for instance, desktop PCs interact with the Internet. Because PCs have a range of browsers and operating systems, interactions between two computers can be more complex. Therefore, mobile phones and the networks that they use are a little more vulnerable than other devices.

They are also inherently vulnerable to physical threats and tampering, too, since they’re a lot smaller, easier to misplace, and they’re always with us. Unlike a PC or laptop, it’s easy to lose track of exactly which pocket your phone is in. This is one of the reasons why eSIMS offer better security than traditional SIMS. Since they’re built into the device itself, they can’t be tampered with. It’s worth finding out more about eSIMS if you’re out and about a lot, or just wary of your phone’s vulnerabilities to malicious third parties. 

What might an attack look like?

Cyber attacks can take many shapes and sizes, with small attacks being designed to add a cookie to your phone for tracking, and large attacks being designed to defraud you of your money. Here, let’s talk about two common cyber attack strategies.

Types of attack

Man-in-the-middle

When two computers interact, the first piece of information they share is called a handshake. This handshake tells each computer, phone, or tablet how to interact with the other.

Sometimes, malicious parties can get access to this initial handshake, and from then on, they can observe whatever you might be doing, and even interact with it. In one notable case, hackers were able to trick users into downloading Gigabud malware.

Air Time

An Air Time attack is quite rare. To break it down: whenever any phone interacts with a cell tower, it uses a form of radio wave. An Air Time attack overwhelms a small area with radio signals, making genuine users unable to access their phone carrier.

This can have quite bad knock-on effects, for instance, people not getting emergency notifications on their phone, or not being able to call emergency services.

Final Word

In short, phone carriers are quite vulnerable to bad actors because phones interact with them wirelessly. This is different from other technologies, which typically rely on wired interactions. Therefore, it pays to always be vigilant when using your phone in a public location.