October 7, 2004
Cell Phone Cloning Spreading Fast
The Korea Times reports that a lawmaker on Thursday argued the government has closed its eyes to the emerging problems of cell phone cloning by not implementing the authentication system.
"The MIC has detected a total of 1,940 cloned phones from last November to June this year and the monthly figure is on the rise.
Every cell phone has a unique factory-set electronic serial number (ESN) and a cloned phone is one illegally programmed to have the identical ESN to the legitimate phone.
Until recently, the mobile system identified a cell phone only by the phone's numbers and ESN but the system is vulnerable to security breaches because the original unit can be easily cloned with knowledge of the two details.
In an effort to counter such a risk, the authentication system was introduced, which conducts a pre-call double-checking process on both local and roaming subscribers. "
Interesting an article in CNN dated December 1996 on cell phone cloning - Thieves are charging calls to the accounts of unknowing cell phone customers. The scam is known as cloning. Thieves capture the signal of a legitimate call, then electronically duplicate the cell phone number.
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