Obama's cell phone records breached

[maseman]

Source: CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, his transition team said Thursday.


An Obama spokesman said the transition team was told employees at Verizon Wireless looked through billing records.

Spokesman Robert Gibbs said the team was notified Wednesday by Verizon Wireless that it appears an employee improperly went through billing records for the phone, which Gibbs said Obama no longer uses.


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/20/obama.cell.breach/index.html

---

Nice going Verizon.

[annabanana]

1. Doesn't the NSA already HAVE a record of all those calls?

YOu know... through the secret room at AT&T that everything funnels through?

[robinlynne]

27. exactly.

[DS1]

2. Not surprising

Any network admin with an agenda can see everything. That's why Obama needs to give up his blackberry.

[Doctor_J]

3. Prosecute

federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison for the spies will deter future abuses.

[sarcasmo]

4. Don't they mean breached by the CIA

[CitizenPatriot]

5. privacy issues, on the agenda:-)

Verizon, shame shame shame

[bluesmail]

6. HA! The irony.

[GETPLANING]

7. It's OK, Obama voted to give them immunity.

It will be interesting to se how this plays out...

[robinlynne]

28. ooh. you are so right.

[cactusfractal]

8. So, um, is this the Verizon...

...that put up special cell phone towers to serve McCain's Sedona estate?

Of course it is...

[Nevernose]

9. I would have looked through Obama's records, too

If I worked for Verizon and had access, I would have looked through his records. I've had access to far more thorough and sensitive records, and the urge to look up everyone you know is almost overwhelming. Human nature.

[crazylikafox]

10. This is a firing offense at Verizon.

I know. I used to work there. I would be very surprised if the person who did this is still employed.

[Nevernose]

11. It would still be hard to resist the urge

I used to have access to all kinds of records. For instance, the FBI once came out and fingerprinted me for access to their criminal database (which many folks have, actually), and it was a terrible compulsion I had to fight constantly to look people up. That bully from high school? That guy on the news? My ex-wife's new boyfriend? I didn't look any of them up, but I can understand why someone did.

Ever since Pandora opened her box and Prometheus said, "Hey, what's that glowing stuff?" we've been dying to know the forbidden.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

13. Let me guess...

... you work in credit card security at Citibank. My ex-wife has been at Citibank for over 20 years, and she can check my credit card information at anytime, even though I am with different bank/credit unions. Just showing who all (even relatively low level bank employees) have access to just about everyone's records. Want to hear about how Sylvester Stallone paid for his new Mercedes Benz by credit card? :argh:


on edit: added credit unions, I only actually deal with one bank.

[Nevernose]

32. The courts, the FBI, and incest:

I either worked for the court or the DA's office (and sometimes Probation) -- it all depended upon who you asked, and violated several provisions in the Constitution about separation of powers, but I wasn't very important and the county didn't have to pay me benefits, so nobody really cared.

Anyway, in my day-to-day functions I had access to all kinds of legal records -- sealed drug cases, transcripts from juvenile trials, DMV records, child abuse records, that kind of stuff. I once saw a brief video clip from a combination incest/rape/bestiality case involving young children. Sensitive stuff. Interesting (if creepy) side note: did you know there's a difference between rape and incest? Incest is almost never seen by the legal system, because incest by definition is always voluntary. Less common than bestiality, but more common than necrophilia -- a lovely world we live in sometimes, ain't it?

There was the option for some of us, though, to use the FBI's systems. The NCIC was part of it, as was something else that I honestly can't recall the name of. The only person I ever looked up was myself, because shortly after that I transferred myself to courtroom duty. Anyway, the last semblance of belief I had in privacy was shredded. The FBI knows EVERYTHING about you.

They had all my financials: every bank I'd used, every credit card I'd had, record of overdrafts.

But then they had the crept information: my kid's name and school (she was in kindergarten at the time), hotels I'd stayed at years earlier, the address of everywhere I'd ever lived since birth, parking tickets ... you name it, they know it.

And that was just the low-level stuff. Real FBI agents can get their hands on the actual "file" which has far more (and I'm assuming these days is computerized).

They probably have more on me than most, since before I went straight I ran with a pretty bad crowd, but still...

[Divine Discontent]

16. exactly! I used to work for a major med. insurance company

and people did stuff like this ALL the time. I received calls from some of my favorite sports figures and couldn't say anything as they told me their psychiatrist bill wasn't paid and other stuff. The temptation is ever present with stuff like this - I mean, come on, if most (not all) people cannot resist having sex with someone they don't know who offers that they find attractive enough, then what's to stop some snooping.

I bet they don't have a job anymore! Well, I'm CERTAIN they don't have a job anymore, this is a huge story for them.

[intaglio]

20. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH! Pedantry alert

Pandora did NOT open the box .... her husband did, but shut it before Hope came out. Pandora saw what had happened, and opened the box again to release Hope.

end pedantry

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Amazingly, I didn't know that.

The story gains a MUCH different twist that way. I like it more now.

[annabanana]

30. please link me to this version.. I had never heard it before...

and It doesn't seem to synch with any other of the online versions...

[unblock]

23. unless he was working on a special special project for the top brass....

[John Q. Citizen]

12. They are immune to law breaking now.

[BunkerHill24]

14. Evo Morales of Bolivia has the same problem...n/t

[arzoolaman]

15. Privacy 2.0 is the way to solve these issues

This sort of thing happens frequently on a massive scale. Companies

often allow employees access to more data than they should, and

often lack the simple ability to audit trail and see who accessed

what. I wrote more about this toping on my Privacy 2.0 blog

http://blog.arzoola.com/2008/11/obamas-cell-phone-records-breached-by-verizon-employee-privacy-20-to-the-rescue.html

[FloridaJudy]

17. Do they have copies

Of the Brazillion text messages he sent me just before November 4th? Got so that when I heard Coldplay on my cell, I knew it was Obama again...

[heliarc]

18. Verizon is a horrible company...

Red to the core.

[Dover]

19. Verizon staff had unauthorized access to Obama's cell

Fri Nov 21, 2008 1:58am EST

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE4AK10320081121?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

[crickets]

21. Aw, man, it's a bitch when people mess with your phone privacy, isn't it?

It deserves to be said.

[SoxFan]

24. Who was calling at 3 AM, anyway?

[melm00se]

25. there is a balance

between security and functionality.

while I'd be sudden death to someone who viewed the phone records without a valid reason, it must be remembered that someone has to be able to get into the records for routine customer inquiries otherwise there would be headlines like: Obama given horrible customer service when trying to access his own account information

[sarcasmo]

26. Paging Mr. Cheney, Paging Mr. Cheney, cleanup in aisle 2

[and-justice-for-all]

29. I would call that grounds for fines for Verizon

and prison time for the employees who breached Obama's records.

[4dsc]

31. What's the big deal here..

Heck, when I worked for MCI we could access anyone using MCI and nobody was the wiser.. Until that is a bunch of people found out OJ had MCI and everyone was looking into his account.. Boy did that end a good thing.. I forgot how many famous people accounts I would look up when their names came up in the news..

So its obvious that just about any at a phone company can look up an account if its there..