Q: With the news about newspaper reporters hacking phones in England, how are cellphones hacked?
-- H. Kuehn, Jonesboro
A: The News of the World reporters who hacked the cellphone of Milly Dowler, a British girl who disappeared in 2002, did so by targeting her voice mail, so they could monitor her in box. Jon Peha, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger that, based on cellphone technology in 2002, a caller ID spoof -- which fools the system "into thinking the caller is calling in from the phone number of the person he's trying to hack" -- would have given access to Dowler's voice mail. Even if there is a personal identification number, hackers often will guess at numbers important to the phone's owner -- dates and account numbers, for example, or random numbers like 1111 -- to break into voice mail accounts, Peha told the Star-Ledger. Hacking into more current and sophisticated phones would involve software similar to spyware for computers, or an application that was specifically installed on the phone, he said. Dowler was 13 when she disappeared on March 21, 2002, and her body was discovered on Sept. 18 of that year. A police investigation uncovered News of the World's practice during the mid-2000s of intercepting cellphone messages of public figures, including celebrities and politicians, as well as family members of murder victims and others who died in tragedies. Some of the victims have brought lawsuits in the phone-hacking scandal, and the newspaper has paid damages to celebrities such as Sienna Miller to settle claims.
Lori Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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