Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Cell phones - Hackers Next Target!

It was bound to happen - they have hacked just about everything else. Now it's the cell phones. Cellphone hacking has just recently surfaced and been made public ever since some one did some cellular phone hacking on Paris Hilton's cell phone.
This article will give you some information about what is going on out there and what you can do to better protect your cell phone information

What Can A Hacker Do?
Surprisingly, there are quite a number of things that can be accomplished by the hacker. Depending on their intent here are a few of them.

Steal Your Number
Your phone number can be accessed and obtained by cellphone hacking. This allows them to make calls and have it charged to your account.

Take Your Information
Mobile hacking allows a hacker to contact your cell phone, without your knowledge, and to download your addresses and other information you might have on your phone. Many hackers are not content to only get your information. Some will even change all your phone numbers! Be sure to keep a backup of your information somewhere. This particular technique is called Bluesnarfing.

Rob Your Money

Other options might use a particular buying feature called SMS. This refers to the fact that money can be taken from your account and transferred into another and a good hacker can sit in one place and access a lot of phones and transfer a lot of money rather quickly probably in less time than you think!

Give The System A Virus
By using another cell phone hack code, a hacker could kidnap your phone, send it a camouflaged program or send it a virus. But it does not end there, since, from that point, he can use your phone to retransmit the virus to many other phones almost instantly - potentially disabling the system.

Spy On You
A hacker can also gain access and take over for cell phone spying and remote mobile phone hacking. Literally, once secured, the hacker can have the phone call him, and then be able to listen to all conversations going on around the owner of the phone.

Access Your Voice Mails
Voice mails can also be retrieved by a hacker through a hacking cell phone. After stealing your number, this can easily be done - if your password is disabled. The main thing that needs to be understood here, is that the electronics that give you the modern convenience of interacting with the Internet (getting your voice mails, emails, Web surfing, etc.) , is also the same technology that allows you to receive the same ills as can befall someone on the Internet.


What Can You Do?
It seems that the major cell phone companies, at least at this point, really are not interested in bringing the system up to be able to cope with this threat. Meetings are starting to take place, but for now it is not perceived to be real serious. This could be because it is primarily the older phones that are most susceptible to some types of this mobile hacking. Until the cell phone manufacturers are able to cope with, or eliminate, the glitches in the system that allows them to overcome these problems, you will largely have to help yourself to cope with these things. Here are a couple of tips that will help you protect your cell phone, its information, and other things.

Use Your Passwords
The cell phone companies tell us that many people have turned off their passwords when they access their voice mail messages, or other things. This little feature, though it may seem to be an annoyance to some, could protect your phone from unauthorized purposes.


Leave The Phone Off
This one is obviously the harder choice, here, simply because most of us who have cell phones like to be reached anytime and anywhere. Others do need to be reachable at all times.

Upgrade Your Phone
While this cannot guarantee that your phone is not hackable, it certainly will help. It should be remembered that the phone companies work hard to deliver the best technology and conveniences - but the cell phone hacks work just as hard to be the first to break the systems designed to defeat them. It is an ongoing battle.


Cellular phone hacking, for now, is a fact of life that affects a few of us. Gladly, the numbers are still small, but many feel this problem is just getting started. By being aware of the problems, you can wisely take steps to prevent them from happening to you. Cellphone hacking does not need to catch you unprepared.

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