Attacking Mobile Privacy by Catching MSISDN Location
Attacking Mobile Privacy By Catching MSISDN Location Christoffer Evjen Ottesen Master of Science in Communication Technology Submission date: June 2017 Supervisor: Stig Frode Mjølsnes, IIK Co-supervisor: Ruxandra-Florentina Olimid, IIK Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Information Security and Communication Technology Title: Attacking Mobile Privacy By Catching MSISDN Location Student: Christoffer Evjen Ottesen Problem description: The MSISDN (or the phone number) is normally associated with a single mobile device linked to one person. Moreover, the phone number is used by many personal services and situations, such as registrations, communications, tickets and receipts, notifications, two-factor authentication, physical identification, geographical locations, and much more. Hence a mobile phone number can be considered to be personal information, and can be used to violate personal privacy. Starting out with the idea and use of an IMSI Catcher, this master thesis work will investigate the possibilities of building an "MSISDN Catcher": a system that detects and links MSISDN with people and locations, without having direct access to the mobile device nor the mobile operator network and registries. However, the MSISDN Catcher can combine several information sources, including broadcasts and side channels that may be available, and try to exploit various technical and social attack mechanisms. A particular focus should be kept on the 4G mobile networks, where experimentation can be based on the OpenAirInterface open source software and USRP B200mini radio devices in our Wireless Security Lab. Responsible professor: Stig Frode Mjølsnes Supervisor: Ruxandra-Florentina Olimid Abstract Today, we find wireless technology almost everywhere. Easily, we can communicate with people on the other side of the world using our mobile phones.
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