Iranian-linked actors allegedly carried out a coordinated cyber-surveillance campaign to track the movements of US military personnel and contractors across the Middle East before and during the recent conflict with Iran, raising fresh concerns over vulnerabilities in commercial mobile technologies and global telecommunications networks, according to a report.
The operation relied on two primary methods to identify the locations of American personnel. One involved exploiting Signalling System No. 7 (SS7), a longstanding vulnerability in international mobile phone networks that can reveal the approximate location of roaming devices, the Financial Times reported.
Regional telecom operators reportedly detected and blocked numerous suspicious SS7 location requests believed to be linked to the campaign.
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During the conflict, Iran-backed groups reportedly launched missile and drone attacks targeting several locations where US personnel and contractors were staying, although US officials have disputed claims that digital tracking alone enabled the strikes.
US officials also believe that actors connected to Iran used commercially available smartphone advertising identifiers and location databases to monitor the movements of military personnel and contractors without directly compromising their devices. The tracking reportedly focused on personnel staying at hotels and transit hubs in Iraq, Bahrain and other Gulf states during the build-up to the conflict and its initial stages.
Cybersecurity experts who reviewed the telecommunications data said the activity appeared to target specific devices rather than conduct broad surveillance, suggesting a coordinated intelligence operation. Gulf officials reportedly suspected Iran or its allies of exploiting international roaming agreements with regional mobile operators to obtain location data.
US Central Command acknowledged receiving multiple reports of adversaries attempting to exploit commercial location data and said it implemented enhanced force-protection measures to safeguard personnel.
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CENTCOM defended its security posture by pointing to enhanced force-protection protocols, even as a US official downplayed the surveillance angle to the Financial Times, claiming data tracking was not a major factor in the strikes.
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