Hacking Spreads To Smartphones

While the phone hacking by British tabloid News of the World was unexceptional by technical standards, security experts say the scandal portends how the growth of smartphones will lead to more sophisticated breaches.

The tactics that tabloid reporters used to eavesdrop on high-profile British targets — and eventually led News Corp. to announce Thursday it is killing the 167-year-old publication — were remarkably low tech.

Former News of the World staffers say that reporters employed tricks to access voice-mail inboxes and procure a great deal of information from British celebrities and the royal family. Experts say that to obtain the PIN codes needed to access those accounts, the reporters used an illegal method known as pretexting.

This tactic involves calling, say, a customer-service representative for a cell-phone operator and impersonating someone to get details about that person’s account. In many places, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, such practices are now prohibited.

Pretexting used to be a vital tool for freelance investigators, said Frank Ahearn, a former detective who does consulting on how to avoid detection, in an interview with CNN last year. “I could still do it, but I just don’t, because it’s illegal now,” he said.

News of the World appears to have exploited a mechanism in mobile-phone carriers’ systems that allow people to access voice-mail messages remotely, from any phone, experts say.

stalling poison applications or opening malicious links in their Web browsers. Attacks using the latter method are becoming ever more sophisticated because software makers provide few safeguards against them.