In the News
A documented weakness in Signaling System 7 has been shown to allow widespread interception of phone calls and text messages (SS7 is the public switched telephone network signaling protocol used to set up and route phone calls; it also allows for things like phone number portability). This weakness in SS7 can even undermine the security of encrypted messaging systems such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
Rep. Ted Lieu, who has a degree is computer science, urged his colleagues Thursday to hold a hearing on mobile phone security after Apple rushed to repair critical iPhone vulnerabilities reportedly being leveraged by state-sponsored hackers.
The California Democrat was among the first lawmakers to formally weigh in this week after Apple asked its users to install an iPhones update that patches previously undisclosed security flaws affecting iOS 9.
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., asked the FCC this week to step up its investigation of a Signaling System Seven (SS7) flaw following reports of alleged Russian hacking of members of the U.S. Congress.
The weakness in SS7 came to light again in April when CBS’ 60 Minutes reported that hackers need nothing more than a phone number to listen to phone calls, read text messages and track users’ location. The hack was demonstrated by security researcher Karsten Nohl, who tracked a new iPhone that 60 Minutes gave to Lieu for the broadcast.
As I have written recently, the $70 billion-per year global arms trade doesn’t get nearly enough coverage given its size, scope and devastating consequences. But a new report by the London-based charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) offers an important exception to that rule.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Cal.) is pushing the Federal Communications Commission to speed up an investigation into a phone security flaw in light of a stolen database of Democratic congressional contact information being posted online.
On Tuesday, Lieu sent a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asking the FCC to “expedite” its look into flaws in the Signaling System Number 7 (SS7) protocol.
A bipartisan quartet of lawmakers is circulating a letter that seeks to delay a pending arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
The lawmakers are targeting the arms sale as part of their opposition to U.S. support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen against Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
Lawmaker criticism of U.S. support for the campaign has recently grown louder, following Saudi airstrikes that hit a school and a hospital, killing dozens of civilians.
Anti-war advocates are launching an 11th-hour bid to stop U.S. Congress from approving a $1.15 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia in its fight against Houthi rebels in Yemen, which was announced earlier this month.
Chief among them are the activist group CODEPINK and U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who are calling on Congress to block the sale at least long enough to give lawmakers time to "give these issues the full deliberation that they deserve."
For months, a California congressman has been trying to get Obama administration officials to reconsider U.S. backing for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. And for months, he has been given the runaround.
Ted Lieu, a Democrat representing Los Angeles County, served in the Air Force and is a colonel in the Air Force Reserves. The brutal bombing of civilian areas with U.S.-supplied planes and weapons has led him to act when most of his colleagues have stayed silent.
Lawmakers are renewing their criticism of the United States’ support for a Saudi Arabia-led military campaign against rebels in Yemen’s civil war in the wake of a mounting civilian death toll.
The Saudis restarted their bombing campaign earlier this month after a United Nations-led peace process collapsed, and in the last week, they are alleged to have killed civilians in airstrikes that hit a school and a hospital, among others.
The U.S. military has withdrawn from Saudi Arabia its personnel who were coordinating with the Saudi-led air campaign in Yemen, and sharply reduced the number of staff elsewhere who were assisting in that planning, U.S. officials told Reuters.
Fewer than five U.S. service people are now assigned full-time to the "Joint Combined Planning Cell," which was established last year to coordinate U.S. support, including air-to-air refueling of coalition jets and limited intelligence-sharing, Lieutenant Ian McConnaughey, a U.S. Navy spokesman in Bahrain, told Reuters.