Is Hacking a Cell Phone Legal

Under the Press Complaints Commission guidelines journalists are warned that that accessing digitally held private information without consent can only be justified in the public interest and only then when the material cannot be obtained by other means. Phone hacking at News of the World 'as recent as last year'. Andy Coulson quits Downing Street in wake of phone hacking scandal.

David Cameron's statement in full.

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Call for major police inquiry into phone hacking. Following the jailing of the News of the World Royal Editor, Clive Goodman, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in , the PCC issued new guidelines which aimed to clarify the law around subterfuge.

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The PABX calls back the premium rate line, confirming the password for the hacker. To stop this form of hacking, the call back feature on the PABX can be turned off, or a strong password used. Mobile phone voicemail messages may be accessed on a landline telephone with the entry of a personal identification number PIN. The service provider commonly sets a four digit default PIN that is rarely changed by the phone's owner.

Hacking phones: What the law says

A hacker who knows both the phone number and the default PIN can access the voicemail messages associated with that service. To prevent subscribers from choosing PINs with weak password strength , some mobile phone companies now disallow the use of consecutive or repeat digits in voicemail PIN codes.


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During the mids, it was discovered that calls emanating from the handset registered against a voicemail account were be put straight through to voicemail without the need of a PIN. A hacker could use caller ID spoofing to impersonate a target's handset caller ID and thereby gain access to the associated voicemail without a PIN.

Following controversies over phone hacking and criticism that was leveled at mobile service providers who allowed access to voicemail without a PIN, many mobile phone companies have strengthened the default security of their systems so that remote access to voicemail messages and other phone settings can no longer be achieved even via a default PIN.

Mobile phone microphones can be activated remotely by security agencies or telcos, without any need for physical access, as long as the battery has not been removed.

The law on phone hacking and private data | Media | The Guardian

Other techniques for phone hacking include tricking a mobile phone user into downloading malware which monitors activity on the phone. Bluesnarfing is an unauthorized access to a phone via Bluetooth. There are flaws in the implementation of the GSM encryption algorithm that allow passive interception.

Find Out Who’s Tracking You Through Your Phone

In December , German researcher Karsten Nohl revealed that it was possible to hack into mobile phone voice and text messages on many networks with free decryption software available on the Internet. He blamed the mobile phone companies for relying on outdated encryption techniques in the 2G system, and said that the problem could be fixed very easily. Phone hacking, being a form of surveillance , is illegal in many countries unless it is carried out as lawful interception by a government agency.

In the News International phone hacking scandal , private investigator Glenn Mulcaire was found to have violated the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act He was sentenced to six months in prison in January In December , the Truth in Caller ID Act was signed into United States law , making it illegal "to cause any caller identification service to knowingly transmit misleading or inaccurate caller identification information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


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This article is about the use of telephone technology to steal information. For the manipulation of telephone call routing, see Phreaking.


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Retrieved 13 July Retrieved 25 Jul How Easy Is It? Retrieved 9 July The Sydney Morning Herald.