Swantje Lange
PhD Candidate
Swantje Lange is a PhD candidate in computer science with the Cybersecurity: Mobile & Wireless research group at Hasso Plattner Institute. She researches the security of cellular networks, focusing on privacy violations and vulnerabilities in currently deployed and future systems. Her goal is to raise awareness of current issues among users, regulators, and developers of systems, contributing to the deployment of more secure communication systems with reduced potential for abuse. Previously, she conducted research on next-generation cellular networks at the Technical University of Darmstadt.
Publications
Bad Connection
Uncovering Global Telecom Exploitation by Covert Surveillance Actors
Our investigation uncovers two sophisticated telecom surveillance campaigns and, for the first time, links real-world attack traffic to mobile operator signalling infrastructure. The findings expose how suspected commercial surveillance vendors (CSVs) exploit the global telecom interconnect ecosystem, leverage private operator networks, and conduct covert location tracking operations that can persist undetected for years.
