The Fall of SS7 - How Can the Critical Security Controls Help?

For decades, the security of one of the fundamental protocols in telecommunications networks, Signaling System No. 7 (SS7), has been solely based on the mutual trust between the interconnecting operators. Operators relied on their trust in other operators to play by the rules, and the SS7 network has been regarded as a closed trusted network. This notion of trust and security has recently changed after several security researchers announced major vulnerabilities in the SS7 protocol that threatens the user's privacy and can lead to user location tracking, fraud, denial of service, or even call interception. In this paper we will discuss each individual attack and examine the possibility of using the critical security controls to protect against such attacks and enhance the security of SS7 interconnections.