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Paris hacked by social engineering

By Gearhead, NetworkWorld.com, 05/19/05

According to a story in the Washingtonpost.com the widely publicized theft of the contents of Paris Hilton's cell phone was just another example of hackers using social engineering rather than high-tech means to get at their target.

The story is particularly interesting as it also discusses how widespread the use of social engineering is and how it was the basis of many recent identity theft cases. It also quotes infamous hacker celebrity Kevin Mitnik as saying:

"The average $10-an-hour sales clerk or call-center employee will tell you anything you want, including passwords ... These people are usually not well-trained, but they also interact with people to sell products and services, so they tend to be more customer-friendly and cooperative."

In Ms. Hilton's case the outfit responsible for falling for the social engineering was T-Mobile International. As far as we can find they have yet to say much about the case or even "sorry" to Ms. Hilton. As sorry as we are for her (which is only a little bit sorry), it is nice to know that the cell phone companies are equally rude to the rich and famous as they are to the rest of us.

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Comments

PWNED!

Posted by: ryan on May 31, 2005 04:57 PM