June 26, 2004
Hackers target cell phones
Gene J. Koprowski for the United Press International, in a weekly (scary) series, examines emerging wireless telecommunications technologies.
"A hacker sits on a bench at Grand Central Station in New York City and, with his mobile phone and a Wireless Fidelity connection, deviously places a virus on the cell phones of unsuspecting commuters as they walk nearby, on their way to work.
Within a few hours, the virus multiplies, infecting several hundred thousand phones, causing them to dial long distance numbers and run up millions of dollars in fraudulent telecom charges.
Fantasy? No -- the coming reality. Viruses and worms on mobile phones are now considered by computer gurus to be a legitimate threat that soon may become as pervasive as the malicious codes being sent to PCs via the Internet every day.
Wireless phone companies -- such as AT&T, Cingular and T-Mobile -- have fortified their national and regional networks to prevent hackers from penetrating them. Hackers have worked around the problem, though, using local, WiFi network access."
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