Goodale offers telecoms a hand in network security, SS7

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the country’s telecoms can reach out to his department for "encouragement" to protect the privacy of Canadians, including to deal with a long-standing vulnerability on decades-old mobile network infrastructure that has been making headlines in recent months. Goodale was responding to a question in the House of Commons related to what the department has been doing about a security vulnerability in a protocol known as signalling system 7 (SS7), which has been shown to allow hackers to intercept SMS messages and phone conversations on wireless networks. The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) “has worked very closely with industry, including the service providers, to make sure they have the advice and the knowledge they need to correct the problem and to ensure the privacy of Canadians is secure,” Goodale said during question period (QP) Thursday, in response to a question from NDP MP Matthew Dubé. That coordination is expected to be beefed up under national security Bill C-59, tabled in Parliament in June, which National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said will give the CSE the ability to work more directly with telecoms on network security. In the meantime, “if the telecoms need a little more encouragement, we would be pleased to give it to them,” Goodale added. Dubé, who is a vice-chair of the House’s Public Safety and National Security committee, participated in an experiment that led to a CBC/Radio-Canada story showing how easy it is for hackers to exploit a vulnerability in a protocol that allowed it to intercept phone conversations. According to the CBC, Goodale said telecoms may not have been as “proficient” in some cases and they need to do better to protect Canadians’ privacy. Experts told the Wire Report, which published a story on the issue in August, that concerns over the vulnerability were intensifying due to the issue being more widely publicized and the fact that it’s been exploited for real. “Canada’s networks are vulnerable…phone conversations can be listened to and movements tracked,” Dubé said during QP, according to a transcript. “While telecom companies have the capacity to beef up their security, what we need is leadership and legislation from the federal government.” The ability to track users’ mobile phones has also been making the news this week. News website Quartz published an article on Tuesday that confirmed Alphabet Inc.’s Google collects Android users’ locations even when their location services are turned off. “We need laws that require transparency and provide for fines,” Dubé added at QP, citing news about hacks at Equifax Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and the Canada Revenue Agency. “We are lagging far behind in this area.” United States politicians have already been clamouring for its government to do something about the vulnerability in the protocol, which effectively connects operator networks with each other within a country and between countries. Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. laid out recommendations for countermeasures that service providers can use to prevent exploitation of the protocol. “A cyber review has been conducted over the last number of months,” Goodale said during QP, responding to Dubé’s question on how the government is “modernizing the legislative framework” to protect the privacy of Canadians. “The House can expect to see at least three different initiatives coming forward in the weeks and months immediately ahead, to establish a new policy framework, to provide a strategy that is geared to the 21st century,” Goodale said. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca

Goodale offers telecoms a hand in network security, SS7

News | November 24, 2017

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Goodale offers telecoms a hand in network security, SS7

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