Hackers, virus writers target mobile phones

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7543263&type=technologyNews

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Feature-rich "smart phones" are proving to be nearly as dumb as personal computers when it comes to fending off viruses, hackers and other security headaches familiar to Internet users.

Hackers can scoop up calendars, contact lists and other sensitive information, or turn a mobile phone into a bugging device to secretly listen in on conversations. Mobile viruses that spread through the air can disable phones completely.

Few mobile phone users have been seriously harmed yet by security breaches. But experts say serious threats are likely to emerge as mobile phones evolve into tiny computers capable of communicating in a variety of ways.

"There is a very large pool of vulnerable devices already in use, and inevitably this will lead to issues with the owners of those devices," said Adam Laurie, a U.K. security expert who has uncovered several security holes.

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By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus
Published Wednesday 12th January 2005 09:47ÊGMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/12/hacker_penetrates_t-mobile/

A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile
for at least a year, which he used to monitor US Secret Service email, obtain
customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos
taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has
learned.

Twenty-one year-old Nicolas Jacobsen was quietly charged with the intrusions
last October, after a Secret Service informant helped investigators link him to
sensitive agency documents that were circulating in underground IRC chat rooms.
The informant also produced evidence that Jacobsen was behind an offer to
provide T-Mobile customers' personal information to identity thieves through an
Internet bulletin board, according to court records.

Jacobsen could access information on any of the Bellevue, Washington-based
company's 16.3 million customers, including many customers' Social Security
numbers and dates of birth, according to government filings in the case. He
could also obtain voicemail PINs, and the passwords providing customers with
web access to their T-Mobile email accounts. He did not have access to credit
card numbers.

The case arose as part of the Secret Service's "Operation Firewall" crackdown on
internet fraud rings last October, in which 19 men were indicted for trafficking
in stolen identity information and documents, and stolen credit and debit card
numbers. But Jacobsen was not charged with the others. Instead he faces two
felony counts of computer intrusion and unauthorized impairment of a protected
computer in a separate, unheralded federal case in Los Angeles, currently set
for a 14 February status conference.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/12/hacker_penetrates_t-mobile/