Security News > 2024 > July > Europol says mobile roaming tech is making its job too hard

Europol published a position paper today highlighting its concerns around SMS home routing - the technology that allows telcos to continue offering their services when customers visit another country.

According to the cops, they pointed out that when roaming, a suspect in a criminal case who's using a SIM from another country will have all of their mobile communications processed through their home network.

The specific part of home routing that's causing all the fuss is the service-level encryption used when enabling home routing by the network operator.

Europol said: "For service-level encryption, the subscriber equipment exchanges session-based encryption keys with the service provider in the home network. If PET is enabled, the visiting network no longer has access to the keys used by the home network and therefore data in the clear cannot be retrieved."

One exception to home routing being a cop blocker is when a domestic service provider has a cooperation agreement with the network provider of another country that forbids the enabling of PETs in home routing.

The first, seemingly preferred option would remove the additional encryption layer implemented when home routing was active and simply keep the same level of comms encryption as the suspect would enjoy in their home country.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/05/europol_home_routing_complaint/