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Hacking?

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(@cowboy)
Posts: 28
Eminent Member
Topic starter
 

Just read this story, any comments? I'm sure I'm going to get some questions about it.

quoted from a news source

British PM shocked by phone hacking.

London's Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, confirmed they were investigating evidence from News International that some officers illegally accepted payments from the tabloid in return for information.

Labour legislator Chris Bryant, one of dozens of prominent Britons who believe their phones were hacked, called the paper's actions "the immoral and almost certainly criminal deeds of an organization that was appallingly led and had completely lost sight of any idea of decency or shared humanity."

Still, Cameron said any inquiry into the News of the World would have to wait until the police investigation was concluded.

U.K. tabloids have a long history of harassing royals, sports stars and celebrities, eavesdropping and paying sources for information about stars' sex lives and drug problems. But News of the World is now accused of possibly interfering with police investigations into missing girls who were eventually found murdered.

A lawyer for the family of murdered teen Milly Dowler has accused the News of the World of hacking into the cell phone of the missing 13-year-old in 2002, deleting messages and giving her parents and police false hope that the girl was still alive.

British media also reported that the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, 10-year-olds murdered by a school caretaker in 2002, had been informed by police that they were investigating whether the News of the World also hacked their telephones.

The hacking case then broadened to terror victims, with revelations that the tabloid's operatives are also suspected of hacking into the phones of victims of the July 7, 2005 terrorist attacks on London's transit system that killed 52 people."

Thanks,

 
Posted : 06/07/2011 9:16 pm
keydet89
(@keydet89)
Posts: 3568
Famed Member
 

What sorts of questions do you think you'd get?

 
Posted : 06/07/2011 10:03 pm
(@angrybadger)
Posts: 164
Estimable Member
 

What sorts of questions do you think you'd get?

so far its been "How do you hack phones?"
you tell them then they say "really, is that it ?"

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 1:44 pm
(@rarosalion)
Posts: 28
Eminent Member
 

Why have these articles received so much attention? I got asked about these today, and had to explain to my boss (so he could explain to his boss, etc.) the various methods that had been used in high profile mobile phone "hacking" (I use the term loosely) cases, and how our organisation could take steps to prevent these types of things happening to us.

I really didn't think these stories were that big a deal…

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 2:23 pm
(@rich2005)
Posts: 535
Honorable Member
 

What are the actual methods they have used to "hack" phones. Last thing I heard is they were just dialing into the Voicemail with the default password.
Was anything 'technical' done of any kind? Or just the above.

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 2:28 pm
(@rarosalion)
Posts: 28
Eminent Member
 

Hence my reluctance to use the word "hacking"…

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 2:32 pm
(@jonathan)
Posts: 878
Prominent Member
 

Hence my reluctance to use the word "hacking"…

There are many long (and deathly boring) discussions on the definition of "hacker" and "hacking". The contemporary meaning of the term is generally taken to mean the unauthorised access or modification of digitally stored material that the provider of the "hacked" material did not originally intend. Whether this is achieved by complex or simple means doesn't really come into it.

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 2:53 pm
(@rich2005)
Posts: 535
Honorable Member
 

Do I take it from your replies, that it is just dialing into the voicemails with the default password then? Or has anything else been reported?

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 3:04 pm
(@rarosalion)
Posts: 28
Eminent Member
 

Jonathan, I don't disagree with you, but it still feels like giving them too much credit. I prefer the definition (even if it isn't as popular today) that requires a hacker to have some level of skill.

Rich, yes… this is my understanding. Apparently many telcos don't require you to set a pin, and leave them as default 0000 (or similar) thus letting anyone easily access your voicemail. Hardly front page news.

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 3:15 pm
(@rich2005)
Posts: 535
Honorable Member
 

To be fair, it's a bl**dy stupid system designed by the networks. Almost so silly you wonder whether it was done deliberately p

 
Posted : 07/07/2011 3:29 pm
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