Global Spy Shock: Altamides Surveillance Tool Tracked 14,000 Phones by Exploiting SS7 Protocol for Over a Decade
A sweeping international investigation by Lighthouse Reports and thirteen media partners across Europe, Africa, and Asia has uncovered a vast surveillance network that operated for more than a decade, spanning 160 countries. At its center lies the Austrian company First Wap and its creation — a powerful tool known as Altamides, capable of tracking any individual in real time through their phone number. Documents obtained by journalists reveal that the system was used not only by state agencies, but also by private firms, intermediaries, and even individuals — from businessmen to stalkers.
The investigation began with a chance discovery: a Lighthouse journalist stumbled upon a data trove in the dark web containing over 1.5 million records of tracking operations. The archive documented attempts to locate more than 14,000 unique phone numbers worldwide. Each entry recorded the time, coordinates, and the precise information visible to the system’s user — the most detailed leak in the history of the surveillance industry.
To interpret the data, a team of 70 journalists from 14 publications spent months cross-referencing phone numbers with real identities. The dataset was divided into “clusters” — groups of targets linked by time, geography, or context. Gradually, from the digital traces emerged a global map of surveillance, encompassing politicians, journalists, business figures, and ordinary citizens.
Among those targeted by Altamides were former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad, Netflix producer Adam Ciralsky, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, Nobel Peace Prize nominee Benny Wenda, Tel Aviv prosecutor Liat Ben Ari, Austrian singer Wolfgang Ambros, and Indonesian editor Ali Nur Yasin. In Italy, journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi was tracked shortly after publishing an exposé on Vatican corruption, while in California, Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe and then-wife of Google’s Sergey Brin, appeared in the records over a thousand times. In South Africa, associates of opposition politician Patrick Karegeya, who was later found murdered in a Johannesburg hotel room, were also among the tracked.
Each media partner uncovered local traces of surveillance. Austria’s Der Standard exposed mass monitoring of Red Bull executives. Norway’s NRK found a former Telenor CEO among the targets. Israel’s Haaretz identified lawyers and businessmen with ties to Africa and the Persian Gulf. Serbia’s KRIK revealed surveillance of energy entrepreneurs, while Indonesia’s Tempo interviewed activists convinced they had been monitored for participating in anti-government protests.
Yet Altamides was not used solely for political or corporate espionage. The archive contained hundreds of records involving ordinary people — teachers, tattoo artists, therapists. One such individual, Sofia (name changed), a European woman vacationing in Goa in 2012, had no idea she was being stalked through commercial-grade spyware used by intelligence services. The surveillance continued for ten months.
The proliferation of Altamides can be traced to a web of intermediaries. Documents indicate that First Wap marketed its technology through a network of partners, including the UK-based KCS Group, which presents itself as a corporate intelligence agency. Following the Arab Spring, KCS representatives actively promoted the system to the governments of Morocco and Algeria, while also deploying it in private disputes — tracking rivals of their clients. In response to journalists’ inquiries, the company insisted it does not employ “unethical surveillance methods” and adheres to corporate compliance standards.
First Wap’s story began in the early 2000s, when its founder, Josef Fuchs, a former Siemens engineer, discovered a vulnerability in the global SS7 protocol — still used today to exchange signaling data between mobile operators. Exploiting this flaw, Fuchs created a system capable of pinpointing any subscriber’s location, anywhere in the world. Initially focused on mobile marketing, the company soon pivoted to the burgeoning global tracking industry. Even in the era of feature phones, Altamides could determine a person’s location within seconds. Over time, its capabilities expanded to include SMS interception, call monitoring, and even access to messaging apps like WhatsApp.
Despite this, First Wap remained largely invisible for nearly two decades. While competitors such as NSO Group and FinFisher became mired in scandal, Fuchs’s company continued to operate quietly in the shadows. The Lighthouse investigation marks the first major exposé of its activities.
To test whether the company imposed any restrictions on its clients, reporters conducted a covert operation at ISS World Prague, a closed annual trade show where surveillance technology vendors present their tools to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Disguised as a South African businessman named Albert, a Lighthouse reporter met with First Wap’s commercial director, Günther Rudolf.
Under hidden camera, the journalist proposed several scenarios: could the company help a government monitor political opponents abroad, hack into WhatsApp, or supply tracking tools to spy on environmental activists protesting against a mining firm owned by a sanctioned individual? Rudolf replied that such a deal “could send him to prison,” but added, “We can find a way.” He explained that problematic contracts were routed through Jakarta, where First Wap’s headquarters are registered, using shell companies to conceal links to the European branch.
When confronted with the recordings, First Wap claimed a “misunderstanding,” insisting that the remarks referred only to “technical feasibility.” In an official statement, the company declared it “does not engage in illegal activity, does not participate in surveillance operations, and has no access to data once systems are deployed.” It maintained that all clients undergo sanction compliance checks and that its products are used “in the fight against organized crime, corruption, and terrorism.”
However, leaked documents and testimonies from former employees tell a different story — one of blurred boundaries, where state surveillance tools have become commodities available to anyone willing to pay. The Altamides archive stands as the clearest evidence yet that control over surveillance technology has all but vanished, and that the global spy industry no longer recognizes borders.
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