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Jamming Cellphones with Text Messages

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the only-one-man-would-dare-give-me-the-raspberry dept.

Steve writes "Some Penn State professors and students have published a way to jam cellular voice service with simple text messages. From the article: 'Because text messages are transmitted on the same signal that is used to set up voice calls, just 165 messages a second is enough to disrupt all cellphones in Manhattan.' Cellular providers, of course, fired back, one stating that it 'constantly and aggressively monitors potential threats to the integrity and security of its network.'"

1 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. VERY TYPICAL OF GSM by KayEyeDoubleDee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Several years ago I was involved in solving a similiar problem in the GSM/MAP/SS7 backbone network of a major European cellular provider/broker. In that case, there was an problem because the SMS messaging is carried in the MAP "signalling" layer, which resulted in the waste of the vast majority of the bandwidth that was meant to be used to handle subscriber management, roaming, authentication, etc. The network (which provided roaming between 100+ sizable European, Asian, and North African carriers) was being saturated with internet-generated SMS text messaging. Essentially, we were only able to block the traffic, having little control over its generation and/or entry into the network.

    Clearly the people that designed the air interface made the same poor architectural decision.