Questions about the Murdoch phone hacking scandal.

[Snarkoleptic]

Our son just left for a week of Boy Scout summer camp in Northern Wisconsin.
At the drop off point we were discussing how Murdoch shat himself and lots of questions were kicked around.
When a guy like Murdoch sees such trick bearing fruit in one market, it's a no-brainer that it gets implemented elsewhere.

So what does the Murdoch phone hacking technique involve?
Do they just hack away with PIN codes until they crack it?

Have public officials, political leaders and media figures been briefed on PIN security?
Has anyone proposed regulation requiring customers receive a text message warning if incorrect PIN's are entered in succession?

I found an article showing the most common PIN's, which seems interesting.
http://amitay.us/blog/files/most_common_iphone_passcodes.php


Wachoo think?

[shraby]

1. Have you seen in the movies, the device that runs through

each number and when it "hits" it goes for the next one?

[Snarkoleptic]

3. Lots of PIN-based systems lock you out after a number of failed attempts.

I hope we can get our cell phone companies to take similar action.
Mebbe they should text users if hacking attempts become evident.

[spanone]

2. i imagine that murdoch is doing dirty business worldwide

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. There's a bit on this from the NYT:

They took advantage of default codes — like 1111 or 4444 — that cellphone providers in Britain gave users to retrieve their voice mail. Many customers did not change this standard number to a more secure code, allowing hackers to use it in one of two ways.
...
If any of the intended victims had changed their codes, the hackers would resort to what they called “blagging” — calling cellphone companies, pretending to be authorized users or company insiders, and requesting that the access code be reset to the default.

Britain’s major cellphone companies — Orange, Vodafone, O2, Three and T-Mobile — said in interviews on Wednesday that their voice mail access procedures had become more stringent since the early 2000s, the heyday for phone hacking.

Orange, Three and T-Mobile no longer provide default voice mail pass codes; users must set their own. O2 and Vodafone will allow codes to be set only from the cellphones they supply. If that number is reset, the new code is also sent directly to the phone. Vodafone alerts customers if three failed attempts are made to enter the number, and O2 locks voice mail services.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world/europe/07phone.html