Exposing The Flaw In Our Phone System

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Can you trust your phone? Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial and get 20% off an annual premium subscription. A huge thank you to Linus Sebastian and the team at Linus Tech Tips - check them out at @LinusTechTips A massive thank you to Alexandre De Oliveira and Karsten Nohl (aka @hackingmatters) for making this demo possible. Karsten has made a great follow-up video on the subject, which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miXRoy-5LLo A special thanks to Crofton Black at Lighthouse Reports, Cathal Mc Daid at Enea, and James Hobson at @hacksmith 00:00 I hacked Linus! 00:59 How Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hacked the telephone network 02:22 Early history of the telephone 07:08 The kidnapping of Sheikha Latifa 08:41 How Signalling System No. 7 works 11:03 Why SS7 is vulnerable to hacking 12:15 How hackers gain access to phones 16:17 How I was able to spy on Linus’ phone 18:09 How hackers can intercept text messages 21:04 How your location can be tracked via SS7 29:03 How to protect your phone from hacking ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters! Join the community to help us keep our videos free, forever: https://ve42.co/PatreonDE Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Burt Humburg, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, I. H., Jack Cuprill, John H. Austin, Jr., john kiehl, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, Tj Steyn, TTST, Ubiquity Ventures and wolfee If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV ▀▀▀ References: Black, C. (2020). Spy companies using Channel Islands to track phones around the world. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism - https://ve42.co/SpyTBIJ It is dangerously easy to hack the world’s phones via The Economist - https://ve42.co/EconHack Blake, H. (2023). The Fugitive Princesses of Dubai. The New Yorker - https://ve42.co/DubaiNY McDaid, C. (2021). How Surveillance Companies Track You Using Mobile Networks. media.ccc.de - https://ve42.co/McDaid2021 Engel, T. (2014). SS7: Locate. Track. Manipulate. media.ccc.de - https://ve42.co/Engel2014 Nohl, K. (2014). Mobile self-defense. media.ccc.de - https://ve42.co/Nohl2014 How Cell Service Actually Works via WendoverProductions - https://ve42.co/CellWendover How Telephone Phreaking Worked via The 8-Bit Guy - https://ve42.co/8BitGuy Transmission Lines: Part 1 An Introduction via TheSiGuy - https://ve42.co/TheSiGuy The Step-By-Step Switch via AT&T Tech Channel - https://ve42.co/SwitchATNT Hacking Your Phone via 60 Minutes - https://ve42.co/60minHack Rosenbaum, R. (1971). Secrets of the Little Blue Box. The Esquire Magazine - https://ve42.co/Rosenbaum1971 Black, C. et. al. (2023). Ghost in the network. Lighthouse Reports - https://ve42.co/Black2023 Kerr, D. (2019). The step-by-step telephone switching system. dougkerr.net - https://ve42.co/Kerr2019 Ecall and 2G/3G Network Obsolescence via PFA Plateforme Automobile - https://ve42.co/PFAAuto2021 Images & Video: All references can be found here: https://ve42.co/PhoneSpyingImageVideo ▀▀▀ Directed by Henry van Dyck Written by Henry van Dyck Edited by Laura Mills Animated by Fabio Albertelli, Ivy Tello, David Szakaly, and Jakub Misiek Filmed by Derek Muller and Linus Media Group Team Additional research by Gabe Strong Produced by Derek Muller, Henry van Dyck, Rob Beasley Spence, Tori Brittain, Emily Lazard, Luke Lewis, Gregor Čavlović, and Emily Zhang Thumbnail contributions by Ren Hurley and Peter Sheppard Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images and Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound