Thread by @KimZetter

Owner of Mitto, Swiss company that sends marketing/security codes/ads via txt, had privileged access to telecom SS7 networks and sold that access to surveillance companies to track location of mobile phones. One phone tracked was a US State Dept official
thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2021-1…

Mitto has had partnership with Google and Twitter to txt security codes to users, and has had partnership with 100+ telecoms, incl Vodafone, Telefónica, MTN, Deutsche Telekom. Gorelik sold the service to surveillance companies which in turn contracted with government agencies

“sources who said their former company worked with Gorelik to carry out surveillance for governments added that he installed custom software at Mitto that could be used to target certain people…there was virtually no oversight of surveillance carried out using Mitto’s systems”

“Gorelik also told some colleagues that he had connections to a national spy agency in the Middle East and was helping that country’s defence ministry track people’s location…”

Story says the secret Mitto surveillance service used SS7 to track mobile phones. Here’s a story I wrote in 2016 explaining how SS7 works and how it can be used to track mobile phones and intercept communication going to them wired.com/2016/04/the-cr…

Small correction to first tweet - way down at bottom of story they include detail that the tracking of the US State Dept official didn’t actually succeed. Telecom system detected the attempts to track the State Dept official as malicious and blocked it.