What Exactly Is ‘Phone Hacking?’
With this whole News International Rupert Murdoch Phone Hacking Scandal (NIRMPHS) taking over our lives, there seems to be a large misunderstanding in terms of what exactly ‘phone hacking’ is. I will begin by saying that they do not ‘intercept’ calls and listen to live conversations. No, Sir. It’s a lot easier than that.
As with the story they did about Prince William and his injured knee, the information was actually obtained from his voicemail. More often than not, that is what they mean by ‘phone hacking’ – listening to someone’s voicemail. Now how do they do that, you ask? Well, it’s very easy. If you were a bad person you could do it right now to nearly any phone in South Africa. Follow the link to find out how…
For example, with Vodacom, you would dial the person’s number, with the numbers “131″ between the “082″ part and the rest of the number. That will take you straight to the voicemail message. For other networks (and any network overseas), the reporters at the News Of The World, would call their target with one phone, and when they answered, the reporter would call the number again from another phone – sending them straight to voicemail.
While the voicemail is playing the “Hi, I’m not available right now” message, they would press “1,” which stops the voice message and asks for a password. Most networks have default passwords to get into your voicemail. At this point they would type either “1111″ or “0000″ or “9999″ and they would be into the voicemail – listening to messages as thought they were the actual user.
Another reason why I don’t dig phone calls and don’t have a voicemail system. More on my voicemail setup here.
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5 Comments
Nick
24 Jul 2011
Seth, u are talking crap here!!
Yes, you could have used the default 1111 password on MTN until 2006.
Not since then.
and you could NEVER do it on Vodacom, as you couldn’t access your voice mail from another phone UNTIL you had set up your own password.
ALWAYS get the facts right!!
Daniel
25 Jul 2011
Yes, nicks absolutely right
Graham
25 Jul 2011
Nick and Daniel, sorry to tell you Seth is right. That is exactly how the ‘hacking’ was done at News Int. You forget that the incidents took place prior to 2006, when voicemail security was slack. Phone companies have tightened things up since then.
So Nick, check your dates AND get YOUR facts right.
Daniel
25 Jul 2011
Daniel, are you for real??
Thats exactly what Nick described!!
Read what Seth wrote above: “easy. If you were a bad person you could do it right now to nearly any phone in South Africa. Follow the link to find out how”
THIS CAN NO LONGER BE DONE!
It has not been possible on MTN since 2006 and NEVER on Vodacom.
Gee whiz
Guinnea pig
25 Jul 2011
Erm, I just did it a minute ago with a colleague’s Vodacom SP phone (with her consent, of course). Whether her simple and predictable password was by default or by her own doing, I do not know.
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