Hacking

There's quite a scandal going on in the UK. Apparently Rupert Murdoch hired investigators to hack cell phones to provide information for his newspaper News of the World. I didn''t think that this was possible unless you have an identical SIM card.

Maybe we've got someone out there that can elucidate.

It's not hacking. It's cracking. Hackers don't like being mixed up with crackers.

There's quite a scandal going on in the UK. Apparently Rupert Murdoch hired investigators to hack cell phones to provide information for his newspaper News of the World. I didn''t think that this was possible unless you have an identical SIM card.

 

Maybe we've got someone out there that can elucidate.

I doubt Rupert had the time to hire the private investigator himself. I'm sure someone on the staff at News of the World was capable enough to hire the investigator themselves.

And yes the voicemail was cracked. From what I read, the investigator used the default security code or one of the many basic codes people use to secure their accounts.

There are many articles published online that list the top 100 commonly used passwords. Google it, maybe one of them looks familiar?

There's quite a scandal going on in the UK. Apparently Rupert Murdoch hired investigators to hack cell phones to provide information for his newspaper News of the World. I didn''t think that this was possible unless you have an identical SIM card.

 

Maybe we've got someone out there that can elucidate.

It depends on the type of phone and the type of information they want.

Simple voicemail hacking could be just dialing the retreival number and trying every possible 4 digit code until one works. This is something that isn't too difficult to automate. Enhance your security by using a 5 or 6 digit code, most systems permit this.

Hacking the e-mail account on the phone, well that's been well covered in countless artiles. Enhance your security by using longer password with Mixed case, numbers and symbols, and change it from time to time.

Getting access to the information on your phone may require physical access to the device, in which case, with enough resources, little can be done. Automatic locking with a passcode is a stopgap measure.

If your device stores (backs up) it's information on a server someplace, someone could hack into it as they would an e-mail account. A long complex password is the best solution.

CNN: Phone hacking can extend beyond voice mail

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/mobile/07/08/phone.hacking/index.html

Beyond the voicemail access (where they just used the default codes/carrier codes) to access the voicemail box, they were "supposedly" also phoning various carriers pretending to be the phone owner and getting the password reset.

The carriers claim that this is no longer possible as the security processes back in the early 2000s are a lot different than they are now.