According to SPIEGEL report: Mobile phone association takes action against controversial Swiss IT expert

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The International Association of Mobile Phone Companies, GSMA, has responded to research by SPIEGEL and its partners on Swiss IT entrepreneur Andreas Fink. The association advises its members to cut off the IT expert's technical access to the mobile phone network. This was confirmed by people familiar with the events to SPIEGEL.

These are so-called global title addresses, which network operators and companies use to handle their technical exchange. If you do not own or have not rented a Global Title, you cannot send or receive signals to or from the network. Now the GSMA has announced internally that it "considers it appropriate for global titles associated with Fink to be terminated".

Within the association, large telephone companies such as Deutsche Telekom or Telefonica, but also many smaller network operators and service providers are organized. The association cannot intervene in the network itself, but it collects tips and information that associated companies then follow. Earlier this week, the association also organised a meeting in which a Luxembourg IT expert provided information on Andreas Fink's activities.

A German company, which had forwarded signals for Andreas Fink, is now planning to end its cooperation with the Swiss, according to SPIEGEL information. A spokesman for the Swiss telecommunications supervisory authority Bakom said after the revelations that they were examining the facts of the case "under telecommunications law".

Worldwide espionage attacks enabled

The background to the current developments are revelations by the investigative organization Lighthouse Reports, in which, in addition to SPIEGEL, the Swiss publisher Tamedia and "Haaretz" from Israel were involved. The joint investigation revealed that Andreas Fink has facilitated espionage attacks worldwide via his infrastructure. For example, he is said to have offered cybercriminals, surveillance companies and even secret services the opportunity to secretly locate their victims or read their text messages with his products. In doing so, attackers exploit vulnerabilities in the so-called SS7 protocol, the backbone of international mobile phone networks.

When asked, Fink emphasized that he had introduced technical protective measures to prevent misuse, such as the interception of SMS. He denied specific incidents, sometimes with reference to his technical records. He is not perfect, but he is also only a small fish in the industry. (Read the entire SPIEGEL research here).

The GSMA had previously announced that it was investigating the case, but did not want to comment specifically on the new developments. A spokesperson said only that "lack of transparency" was a problem when Global Titles were rented and used by third parties. In addition, the association spokesperson pointed to a recently developed code of conduct for the rental of Global Title, which should lead to the protection of mobile customers and the networks.