Re: SS7 hacked?
Reading slightly between the lines, it appears that SS7 was introduced in the early-mid 70s to prevent phone phreaking and the resulting loss of telco revenue.
SS7 doesn't map onto the OSI comms model very well and security seems not to have been a priority - as if its designers thought "its digital, so attacking it is well beyond the capability of the phreakers". Besides, originally SS7 protocols were only used for inter-exchange communication and so never reached an end-user phone.
Then time moved on, mobile phones were invented and these adopted SS7 signalling because it was there, 'just worked' and SS7 capabilities were needed to manage tasks such as handing on calls from one cell to the next. So now SS7 messages do reach end-user kit, which makes them both interesting and much more accessible to phreakers and other black hats.
The main changes since then seem to be that other data handling services, such as SMS message, 2FA authentication, etc., have been layered onto SS7, which, at a guess, is still an unencrypted channel.
So, given this history, it shouldn't be a surprise that miscreants are now targeting SS7 for nefarious purposes such as syphoning off any security data that it might be carrying. This was always bound to happen and the only surprise is that its taken so long.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
