Iran exploited networks to track US personnel in Middle East

U.S. military personnel and contractors in the Middle East were targeted by a sophisticated digital surveillance campaign linked to Iran during the recent conflict, according to telecommunications data and cybersecurity experts. The campaign exploited vulnerabilities in global mobile networks and commercial data streams to track the locations of American devices.

The surveillance reportedly began in the weeks leading up to the late February joint U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran and continued after Tehran launched retaliatory drone and missile strikes on American installations across the region. Data from the Mobile Surveillance Monitor research project showed a surge in suspicious signaling requests, known as SS7 pings, across multiple Middle Eastern telecom networks at the onset of the conflict. Cybersecurity experts analyzing the data said the volume and pattern of these requests indicated a coordinated effort to locate specific mobile devices rather than random activity.

The technique leverages the Signalling System No. 7 (SS7), a decades-old protocol that enables global mobile roaming. While essential for connectivity, SS7 has known security weaknesses that...