Rep Lieu and Sen Wyden push for FCC to tackle major cellphone security flaw

Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Sen Ron Wyden (D-OR) are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to take "swift action" on a known cellphone security flaw. “It is clear that industry self-regulation isn’t working when it comes to telecommunications cybersecurity,” Sen Wyden and Rep Lieu wrote in a letter they cosigned, on March 28.

At issue is Signaling System 7 (SS7), which allows cellphone networks to communicate with one another - among other purposes, letting cellphones roam from one network to another. In 2014, German security researcher Karsten Nohl determined that there was a bug in SS7 that could allow an attacker to record phone calls, place calls from other accounts, and create other mischief. The relatively obscure phone protocol, though, now has the attention of Congressional lawmakers.