WhatsApp And Facebook Signals Can Be Used To Get Your Location
Hackers can monitor 4G mobile networks to detect users' location using supposedly anonymised identifiers Security researchers have revealed how simply contacting somebody via WhatsApp or Facebook messenger can reveal a smartphone owner's location by exploiting a security flaw in 4G mobile networks. A hacker could use the apps to discover the supposedly anonymised identifiers that are assigned to devices when they connect to a network, and use them to locate their owner, according to researchers in Finland and Germany. When a smartphone connects to a mobile network, it is assigned a temporary number called a TMSI (Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity). The network then uses this eight-digit number to identify a device, rather than a phone number, to make communication more private. However, a hacker monitoring radio communications could tie this TMSI to an individual by sending them a Facebook message or WhatsApp chat, both of which trigger a special "paging reques