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Zen: of course they do... that's why they were called 'T-men' way back in the days before they became "Secret Service" - treasury agents. They were also infamous for busting moonshiners (the shiners called 'em "revenooers" though). I'm not quite sure on this, but I think the Secret Service still falls under Department of the Treasury.
PCS is older technology, not to down play PCS ShagDevil, but that article is no longer completely accurate. T-mobile didn't build it out, they bought it in mergers and other technologies have surfaced and evolved. I doubt her cell phone was "hacked" at all. This dude probably just accessed her call records and posted it somewhere fascination with her and her "movies" circulating on P2P etc. Call records, you know those things you get mailed to you, or someone dumpster dived it. Who knows. The deal is this... cell phones are like a wireless access point. It's public.
If you buy a cell phone today, it's going to be digital and encrypted across the backbone and PCS is one of many and even among PCS implemenations there are variations in technology utilized. Those guys setting in call centers answering your phones have limited access to account configuration, there is no interface to any part of any backbone. But somewhere there is a man or a team with access, just like any system with access controls they can be breached on the inside. You have to trust the people that build it.
//EDIT the Secret Service protection duties of the president and goernment officials are an afterthought brought about by an asassinaton. They are the policing body of the treasury and our financial system. Like most government agencies they have a web site. Theirs is good for researching financial schemes and criminal activities along the financial front. Along with the Office of the Comptroller, another treasury unit. www.secretservice.gov It's hard to say who is in charge anymore since 9/11 and the sweeping changes in law enforcement. They may work for Homeland Security Now and would certainly eventually fall under the supposed security tzar everyone is yammering about an capitol hill???
I used to be a t-mobile rep. Your average run of the mill joe schmoe working in a call center is an under paid moron. Theese guys are over worked and make just over minimum wage. of course they arent secure... they dont give a ****. And from what I was given to believe it wasnt an inside job (this is coming from t-mobile) and it wasnt the web interface that was hacked. It was tmobiles sql database with all of the customer information in it. the information contained there in was used to acsess her sidekick II via a similar process to SSH or RDP. Unfortunaltely the NDA i signed is still in effect so I cant go into to much detail but thier system is very insecure. Wich is why I would never get a t-mobuile phone even when I worked for them and was offered an insane discountQuote:
Being someone who has had to work with T-Mobile reps before I can tell you easy they are not to secure at all.
Most "call center" "support representatives" are tier-one, underpaid, have about the experience of the book they're reading from, and are trying to either A: make their way into the market or just taking the job because it pays weekly and is better than manual labor. Social engineering isn't too hard on any of them, especially if you listen to their conversations and pick something they like/etc. Little bit harder if someone's "by the book", but can be done nonetheless.
As far as not going to a specific vendor because of their insecurities, even if someone worked there, etc...there's no idea on how secure something is unless you're at the level where you specifically WORKED with the security and safety measures. For every design that's "more secure than the last", there's someone out there trying to crack it and if anyone puts any credit into the idea that TMobile is less secure because some dumbass named Paris Hilton got her **** whacked because she's a complete idiot, well, then both are about as smart as a box of hair.
PS: I'm a TMobile customer and have never had any problem with my bill, my phone, or my security features, hehe...and this is after I was an AT&T customer for 7 years.
EDIT ADD: oh yeah, even if someone has a "secure setup" involving SSH or something else listed as "more secure", that doesn't mean they themselves can be circumvented. If SSH isn't set up to access only from one specific IP with a given username and password, then it means nothing when you blab your password because you're too drunk or you have it pasted on a sticky note on your monitor...
Zombie, you bring up an interesting point. You can secure the hell out of your webservers, making the site bullet but the sales people or other staff could keep billing records on a laptop they use at Starbucks. So while your webserver is intact or in this case the cell backbone itself, the company is compromised through a lack of overall security in less vulnerable applications.
This leads us to a potential new field: Telephone Security Specialist/IT. I'm now curious how long it'll take before the Cell phone companies wake up and start hiring them...
We've entered a new chapter in phreaking these days I'm afraid - cell phones with net access are, like everything with net access, susceptible to malware, being cracked, pirated, etc. Will the phreaks of today wind up the Security Gods of tomorrow (like they said the old hackertypes would)?
Let's see here: I can check my email with my phone... ok, so there's one virii/spyware. I can send a pic to a friend - whups, it just got sniffed out and pirated... I can look at websites - whups, bad, nasty java code just fragged me, not to mention the thousands of spyware variants that just got stuck on my phone.
Anyone have any info on those little 'cool ring tones' you can download whose commercials now constanly spam us when the idiot box is on? Any spyware there? I bet there is...
So what's the solution? I forsee a day when your cellular phone will have to contain a gig of ram or so plus a 'flash disk' with some form of operating system aboard and antivirii/antimalware tools included. I can hear the excuse now: "Gee Hon, I would've called, but I was right in the middle of downloading a critical update. You know how huge those Sprint patches can get..."
There is a difference. Your phone isn't naked on the net. Like your PC is, the phone is going through proxies and portal appliances. At one point I argued that the phone is impossible to reach through normal measures, that is until my Nextel phone graduated to having it's own IP address. But the saving factor is, your phone is many machines and interfaces away from the actual internet... so far....
I don't have a cell phone...even though my boss keeps asking me to get one...and I hope I never will need one...
Eg :D
Road Closed, thanks for clarifying the matter for me. I'm not going to pretend that I'm some kind of cell phone expert as I obviously am not. You made a good point though.
Now that makes alot more sense than someone "hacking" into her phone. If that is the case then the article is somewhat misleading. The article seemed to imply that someone got into her personal cell phone and stole her address book, hence my confusion. I'm not saying it's impossible, it just makes more sense as you explained it.Quote:
I doubt her cell phone was "hacked" at all. This dude probably just accessed her call records and posted it somewhere fascination with her and her "movies" circulating on P2P etc. Call records, you know those things you get mailed to you, or someone dumpster dived it
From the little I have read, it was not. Actualy im at a loss as to why anyone would think it was.Quote:
I doubt her cell phone was "hacked" at all.