4G mobile networks have an extremely serious problem, which was discovered by a group of researchers in computer security, and it puts a lot of people at risk at the moment. Specifically, the researchers discovered that existing vulnerabilities in 4G mobile networks allow hackers to send fake presidential alerts, which are seen by the users who receive them, whether they want it or not.
Presidential alerts are used by the presidential administration of a country to communicate with the citizens, and are different from the alerts for emergency situations sent by RO-ALERT, for example. Presidential alerts are alerts that cannot be closed by users when they are received, so they remain on the phone screens, and hackers can completely block devices with them, forcing users to close them to get rid of them.
CAREFUL! THE MAJOR PROBLEM with 4G Mobile Networks
University of Colorado researchers managed to exploit vulnerabilities in 4G networks to simulate sending a presidential alert to a stadium with 50.000 people, and their test proved to be a success. Although they did not send to real people, the simulation allowed them to convince themselves that the vulnerabilities in the system exist, and that they can be exploited, so all users must be aware of what is happening.
"Security vulnerabilities in LTE can allow hackers to "easily" spoof presidential alerts sent to mobile phones in the event of a national emergency. Using off-the-shelf equipment and open-source software, a working exploit made it possible to send a simulated alert to every phone in a 50,000-seat football stadium with little effort, with the potential of causing "cascades of panic," said researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder."
Discovered vulnerabilities can be blocked, but mobile operators need to collaborate to close them, otherwise they will remain so, and can be exploited without problems by anyone. Given the complexity of such collaboration, it is unlikely that mobile operators will do this soon, so users can only hope that hackers will not exploit the vulnerabilities in the real world too soon.
