Hacking phones is too easy. Time to make it harder

For more than 15 years experts have known that SS7 (or, occasionally, a later system called Diameter) could be abused to locate a phone user, intercept their text or voice data, or send texts or spyware to a device. Russia has exploited SS7 to track dissidents abroad. In 2018 the United Arab Emirates is thought to have used it to find and then abduct a fugitive princess. Earlier this year an American cyber-security official told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a regulator, that similar attacks had taken place in America.