dvarsam
December 21st, 2006, 12:13 AM
Hello all!
I would like to ask you for your personal opinion.
For the past years there has been a big issue in my Country, that any Mobile Phone can be "bugged" (i.e. anybody in the world, from any remote location can listen to all your conversations done through your Mobile Phone).
It has been a "huge" issue in my country, and considered a scandal where 106 telephone numbers have been found to be "bugged" - including mobile phones of Greece's Prime Minister, members of Parliament, NSA agencies, etc etc.
Companies included, based on Newspaper's articles, were Vodafone, Cosmote, Tim & Ericsson! (these are Greece's all Mobile Phone Providers!!!)
Unfortunately, Greece's NSA agency, Greece's Government (Headed) Institute for Privacy of Communications do not appear to issue statements as to whose fault it was & how mobile phone users should protect themselves...!!!
At the same time the "Antenna" TV Channel in Greece is currently playing/stating that it considered "extremely" easy & any mobile phone user can "bug" any other user's mobile phone from Remote location!!! That channel today claimed that it was Ericsson's fault that all those mobile phones were "bugged"...
They have also publicly demonstrated how it is done - however they haven not provided any details...
They also claim that thousand phones have been bugged instead, however this is not "said" to the public so that users don't panic. :) Also since doing all this is very easy, any Private Investigator (or even user) could "bug" any mobile phone - by just being provided the mobile number...
Another thing they said, is that through Bluetooth, any user can steal your Mobile Phone's Personal Data (e.g. SMS, Pictures, Contact's Phone Numbers, Missed Calls, etc etc. - basically everything), as long as the receiving party, accepts an incoming "Bluetooth" message...
They have used a PC program installed in a laptop to scan for available Bluetooth Devices & a Mobile Phone's Program to send a "Bluetooth" message, so that IF the receiving user accepts, they can read/steal all your Mobile Phone's Personal Data!
Any info - regarding what program did what - was kept private, but they say that "no mobile phone user" in the world can do anything about it, since people can send "hidden" SMS/Bluetooth messages to any mobile phone number - without the user ever noticing!!!
What is your Personal Statement about all this & how can we "shield" our mobile phones Data & Conversations?
(e.g. they say it is better for a user NOT to use Bluetooth at all!!! Not that this is considered 100% safe - since again anybody can activate that too! :) remotely - but still they claim it is 1 way to get more secure...)
Thanks.
I would like to ask you for your personal opinion.
For the past years there has been a big issue in my Country, that any Mobile Phone can be "bugged" (i.e. anybody in the world, from any remote location can listen to all your conversations done through your Mobile Phone).
It has been a "huge" issue in my country, and considered a scandal where 106 telephone numbers have been found to be "bugged" - including mobile phones of Greece's Prime Minister, members of Parliament, NSA agencies, etc etc.
Companies included, based on Newspaper's articles, were Vodafone, Cosmote, Tim & Ericsson! (these are Greece's all Mobile Phone Providers!!!)
Unfortunately, Greece's NSA agency, Greece's Government (Headed) Institute for Privacy of Communications do not appear to issue statements as to whose fault it was & how mobile phone users should protect themselves...!!!
At the same time the "Antenna" TV Channel in Greece is currently playing/stating that it considered "extremely" easy & any mobile phone user can "bug" any other user's mobile phone from Remote location!!! That channel today claimed that it was Ericsson's fault that all those mobile phones were "bugged"...
They have also publicly demonstrated how it is done - however they haven not provided any details...
They also claim that thousand phones have been bugged instead, however this is not "said" to the public so that users don't panic. :) Also since doing all this is very easy, any Private Investigator (or even user) could "bug" any mobile phone - by just being provided the mobile number...
Another thing they said, is that through Bluetooth, any user can steal your Mobile Phone's Personal Data (e.g. SMS, Pictures, Contact's Phone Numbers, Missed Calls, etc etc. - basically everything), as long as the receiving party, accepts an incoming "Bluetooth" message...
They have used a PC program installed in a laptop to scan for available Bluetooth Devices & a Mobile Phone's Program to send a "Bluetooth" message, so that IF the receiving user accepts, they can read/steal all your Mobile Phone's Personal Data!
Any info - regarding what program did what - was kept private, but they say that "no mobile phone user" in the world can do anything about it, since people can send "hidden" SMS/Bluetooth messages to any mobile phone number - without the user ever noticing!!!
What is your Personal Statement about all this & how can we "shield" our mobile phones Data & Conversations?
(e.g. they say it is better for a user NOT to use Bluetooth at all!!! Not that this is considered 100% safe - since again anybody can activate that too! :) remotely - but still they claim it is 1 way to get more secure...)
Thanks.