Just How Easy Phone Hacking - Phone Hacking

Amid reports of the News of the World cell phone hacking scandal, many mobile users might be wondering if their own phones are vulnerable. How easy is it to hack someone’s phone? Despite the recent hubbub, the news is pretty heartening: with advances in mobile technology have come advances in mobile security. But not all cell devices are free from invasion.

“No system is 100 percent foolproof,” said John Walls, vice president of public affairs with CTIA, a non-profit advocacy organization that represents the interests of the wireless communications industry. “Then again, the systems that are in place are very good and provide high levels of protection for consumers. You have to protect the customer to the best of your abilities — the customer and the integrity of the service is all they have.”

But why would anybody hack someone else’s phone? News of the World reporters performed these tasks to get the story — no matter what.  The hacking procedure went like this, according to The New York Times Magazine: Reporters used a technique called “double screwing,” which involved calling the same number at the same time. The first caller would make the line busy, leading the second caller directly to a voice mail prompt. After entering the voice mail password, the second caller gained access to the person’s messages. According to the Times, simple codes like “1111” would crack it.

But this is not the only way to hack voice mail. Previously, Walls said, hackers could access people’s voice mail by calling their cell phone service providers to ask to set a new voice mail password. If simple codes didn’t work, News of the World private investigators relied on this method to access passwords, wrote the Times. That was before the advent of multiple passwords and security questions. Now, only the customer who has set these codes has the ability to make changes to the voice mail settings, even to the person’s general cell account. Wireless carriers also keep a limited pool of personnel who can access customer information, so as to prevent the information from getting into the wrong hands.

But there are other ways to hack voice mail. Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer at Lookout, a San Francisco-based company that develops smartphone security software, explained two behind-the-back techniques.

One involves accessing a person’s voice mail through another person’s voice mail. The two have to be contacts in the same network. By calling one person’s voice mail, the hacker can use a code to bounce to another voice mailbox. The advantage here, said Mahaffey, is that the owner of the phone is not made aware of the hack — just like in double screwing. With a crack at the password, the hacker gets in.

The second involves caller ID “spoofing,” which uses a trick to make a cell phone carrier think that an outside call to a phone’s voice mail is actually coming from the phone itself, as in dialing *86 on your own device to get your  messages. The difference here is that these spoof attacks specifically target mobile users who have not set a voice mail password. Spoof calls provide straight access to voice mail, but if you have a password, this could never happen, said Mahaffey. Mahaffey also said that most mobile operators have fixed this issue, but that nobody knows the extent of this problem today.

Beyond wireless providers, the responsibility to keep the networks clean also lies in the hands of wireless customers. Walls advises that cell carriers use a password-prompted screen lock, which requires that you enter a pass code to get to the phone’s home screen. Also, choose your passwords wisely: don’t pick a password that a hacker can find on your Facebook profile, like your birthday, said Mahaffey. Never store these passwords on your phone, and be sure not to open any SMS messages coming in from unknown numbers, which, Walls said, contain content that, when opened, can install malware and spyware onto your cell.

This adds a new dimension to the hacking problem. Marc Fossi, manager of research and development for Symantec Security Response, said that the recent development of cellphone technology has made mobile devices into small computers. “They’re susceptible to the same attacks that many computers are,” said Fossi.

Mahaffey defines malware, which can affect computers, as software that works with malicious intent. If it’s installed onto your smartphone through a dodgy e-mail or text message, the bug plays a nasty fly-on-the-wall role. It can gather any information that passes through your phone as it flies from app to app. Not only can this include information about your call history and messages, but also financial information if any mobile apps are linked to a credit or debit account, said Mahaffey.

Spyware, on the other hand, falls into a murkier territory. Not all spyware is malware, said Mahaffey, but some of it can be. Spyware works through apps that take any data from your phone, such as contacts, browsing habits, text history and location, without consent. Your information could get uploaded onto an app’s contact list without your approval, for example.

Luckily, there are solutions to prevent this from happening. Be sure to keep your apps up to date. New software that fixes old security flaws can keep hackers at bay. Stay away from e-mails, texts and apps from unknown, untrusted sources. Stay safe on public wifi networks that are not secure by avoiding online shopping or banking. Finally, you can install security software onto your phone that protects you from harm.

“It’s important that we don’t end up in the same position on our phones as we did on the PC,” said Mahaffey. “There’s an opportunity for mobiles to be much better.”

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How To Make Reverse Phone Lookup - Black Hat Hacking

A Reverse Cell Phone Lookup is simply a process of finding someone’s personal details such as name, age, address and related information by using their cell phone number. At times it becomes necessary for us to start investigating on someone to know their personal details. The reason for this can be many – Some people may go for a cell phone lookup in order to locate their old friends, some to investigate the prank calls or to trace a suspicious number.

There exists a lot of websites on the Internet that offer reverse cell phone search, some claim to be free while others ask you a small fee for the subscription. There also exists a few directories that provide access to both landline and cell phone numbers thereby providing an all-in-one lookup service.

Since most people wish to access this information for free, they go in search of those websites which provide the reverse cell phone lookup service for free. Most scam websites take up this tendency of people as an added advantage and try to attract more and more visitors by promising them to provide the search service at a free of cost. In reality, the visitors of these websites may pick up malware programs like viruses and trojans. So you should be very careful not to visit any of such websites unless you are 100% confident about their legitimacy. Hence, in order to do a reverse cell phone lookup, you need to find a trusted website/directory service that provide information which is accurate and authentic.

Even though there is no national cell phone lookup directory available in United States due to various privacy concerns, there are still a number of top quality directories used by various private detectives, journalists and those who are in need to spy on their cheating spouse or children. These companies invest a lot of time and financial resources in gathering mobile phone and landline numbers by using both private and public sources, as well as major cell phone carrier restricted databases.

Thus by using this service it becomes just a cakewalk for anyone to find the details associated with any phone number whether it be a cell phone or a landline. The entire process of finding someone by cellphone number is very straightforward – all you need to do is just enter the phone number that you want to trace down and hit the “Search” button. You will be able to instantly view the information such as the phone owner’s name, age, mobile provider, billing address, previous addresses and more.

I recommend the following cell phone directory to search both mobile & landline and listed/unlisted residential numbers. The site is completely safe and uses a 128-bit secured access to maintain 100% privacy of the uses. All searches remains private and anonymous. Click on the following link to gain access now!

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