Exposing The Flaw In Our Phone System

A huge thank you to Linus Sebastian and the team at Linus Tech Tips - check them out at @LinusTechTips

A massive thank you to Alexandre De Oliveira and Karsten Nohl making this demo possible.

A special thanks to Crofton Black, Cathal Mc Daid, and James Hobson at Hacksmith Industries.

00:00 I hacked Linus!
00:59 How Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hacked the telephone network
02:22 Early history of the telephone
07:08 The kidnapping of Sheikha Latifa
08:41 How Signalling System No. 7 works
11:03 Why SS7 is vulnerable to hacking
12:15 How hackers gain access to phones
16:17 How I was able to spy on Linus’ phone
18:09 How hackers can intercept text messages
21:04 How your location can be tracked via SS7
29:03 How to protect your phone from hacking

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Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Burt Humburg, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, I. H., Jack Cuprill, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, Tj Steyn, TTST, Ubiquity Ventures and wolfee

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References:


Images & Video:

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Directed by Henry van Dyck
Written by Henry van Dyck
Edited by Laura Mills
Animated by Fabio Albertelli, Ivy Tello, David Szakaly, and Jakub Misiek
Filmed by Derek Muller and Linus Media Group Team
Additional research by Gabe Bean
Produced by Derek Muller, Henry van Dyck, Rob Beasley Spence, Tori Brittain, Emily Lazard, Luke Lewis, Gregor Čavlović, and Emily Zhang
Thumbnail contributions by Ren Hurley and Peter Sheppard

Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Storyblocks
Music from Epidemic Sound

[hacksmith]

Definitely the strangest way to end up in a collab! I can't believe this is a thing -- thanks for.... not hacking me instead! 😂

[LinusTechTips]

With friends like this, who needs enemies :D

Thanks for including us and getting the word out about this threat. Mind-blowing stuff. - LS

[nicolaicornelis]

"Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" is one of the worst arguments for mass surveillance. I absolutely hate it.

[TimothyMershon]

Veritasium: I hacked my friend. But first let me give you a complete history of the telephone.

Me eating breakfast: Ok, cool. 👍

[immortal]

"Nothing to hide, nothing to fear" Assumes that the intruders are always on your side, when the intruder could be an evil organization or a government with opposite views.

[poomplanichaya]

I wish this video was uploaded on Linus’s channel with title “I upload this video without Linus permission”

[matt-tqdp]

*tech enthusiasts:* "my whole house is smart"

*tech workers:* "the only technology I have is a printer and I keep a gun next to it so that I can shoot it if it makes a noise I don't recognize"

[FernandaAsher]

Derek: does a high production value, animated, musiced and scripted documentary on the phone system
Also Derek: (12:32) You need a sim card shows microSD.

[yasahiroitou]

Veritasium : Hey Linus, wanna collab?
Linus : NO
Veritasium : We'll see about that

[GellertKyosheval]

Veritasium uses your phone to find you and then sends Vsauce the location.

"Hey Vsauce, Michael here, your home security is pretty good. Or is it?"

Lockpicking Lawyer walks into the frame. "Click on one, nothing on two...".

After a few seconds, the door opens. "Now... How many holes do you have?"

[Zulu_Drops_Dubs]

“One thing you can’t hack, is this segue, to our sponsor.”

[MuharremGorkem]

A minor correction to what your SS7 introduction animation might suggest. SS7 does NOT include a control line between the subscriber phone device (which still can use DTMF) and the exchange to which it is connected to. SS7 is primarily used between different exchanges for call routing in case caller and callee are connected to different exchanges. In this sense, it is not a subscriber signalling protocol, but a call routing one among exchanges. ISDN, on the otherhand, as a subscriber line signalling protocol suit, uses digitial channels for call signalling between the subscriber device and the exchange to initiate and terminates calls. Note that GSM also uses ISDN for subscriber signalling. This time instead of physical cables to carry digital ISDN call signalling data, GSM radio interface does the job.

[classicalmechanic]

Pope:"Hello? Who's calling?"
Steve Jobs: "It's Henry Kissinger. I want to confess war crimes."

[woomba]

As someone in cybersecurity, just one more thing I get to reference to get people to stop using SMS and phone as their 2nd factor in authentication. Sim swapping is one thing. This is another level

[DataIsBeautifulOfficial]

Please tell me you changed all his contacts to 'Mom'

[TheBooker]

This is actually insane. I didn't realise regular old cell networks were so highly compromised. I knew they were much worse than any form of communication which uses E2EE, but this is on a whole other level.

[minhhoang]

Veritasium: Shown a big fat security concern
Me: So what can I do?
Veritasium: There's not much you can do.
💀

[istiakakib]

When you sleep first during a sleepover

[mhales]

As a manager in telecom.... this is outstanding stuff. As in a perfect primer for anyone working in the cell industry.

[portobellomushroom]

The hacksmith calling Linus Tech Tips and having Veritasium pick up the phone is the weirdest crossover of the year