Can you trust your phone? Head to https://brilliant.org/veritasium to start your free 30-day trial and get 20% off an annual premium subscription.

A huge thank you to Linus Sebastian and the team at Linus Tech Tips – check them out at ‪@LinusTechTips‬

A massive thank you to Alexandre De Oliveira and Karsten Nohl making this demo possible.

A special thanks to Crofton Black, Cathal Mc Daid, and James Hobson at Hacksmith Industries.

00:00 I hacked Linus!
00:59 How Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hacked the telephone network
02:22 Early history of the telephone
07:08 The kidnapping of Sheikha Latifa
08:41 How Signalling System No. 7 works
11:03 Why SS7 is vulnerable to hacking
12:15 How hackers gain access to phones
16:17 How I was able to spy on Linus’ phone
18:09 How hackers can intercept text messages
21:04 How your location can be tracked via SS7
29:03 How to protect your phone from hacking

[…]