German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when cellular networks are using the most advanced encryption now available.

The flaws, to be reported at a hacker conference in Hamburg this month, are the latest evidence of widespread insecurity on SS7, the global network that allows the world’s cellular carriers to route calls, texts and other services to each other. Experts say it’s increasingly clear that SS7 is riddled with serious vulnerabilities that undermine the privacy of the world’s billions of cellular customers.

The American company suggests service that can track subscriders all over the world, without users or operators knowledge. On the Internet, there are so many services that can monitor the location of the user, but this case  is one of the first, when such services are offered quite officially and globally.

How can it be? When it comes to mobile surveillance, it is believed that this requires technologies that are used by special services only. In reality, everything is easier. The telecommunication network contains many small systems of different technical level, and the level of the network security is often determined by the level of the weakest link.

Inventors of surveillance systems reported to authorities that it is possible to track absolutely any user who has a mobile phone, and the location of a person is not important, it doesn’t matter whether he is near or in another country.

The most famous intelligence services around the world, such as the National Security Agency of the USA and The Government Communications Headquarters of the United Kingdom use information from mobile phones for a long time. However, due to the new systems in countries that are less developed technically, it is possible to track people around the world easily. How does the system work?