Cell Phones, how safe are you with caller ID spoofing? • 11.01.11
Last week while testing a website that offers a caller ID spoofing service, John Anderson of Vermont Internet Design LLC (http://www.vermontinternetdesign.com). Discovered that if you use the tool to call a cell phone number, then you use that very same number as the number to display on the caller ID it will dial you straight into the voicemail box of the number you dialed.
“The system is able to be tricked into thinking that its actually a different phone calling. I could be here on my phone and call your number and trick it into thinking that it’s you calling. I tested this on phones from a few different service providers, including AT&T and Verizon,” says John Anderson.
Cell phones are becoming more and more common. Usage of the internet is flourishing. Telephone systems and the internet are becoming more integrated. When we allow these simple breaches of data go unnoticed than it eventually leads to larger problems.
“It makes me not want to use voicemail, if the phone companies can’t put together a simple security measure to prevent things like this. I noticed some providers have an option to require a pin when calling voicemail from your own phone. Why can’t they add this feature and enable it by default? A lot of cell phone users never change the default settings. Leaving millions of cell phone users vulnerable to unauthorized access of their voice mails,” John Explains.
It can be said that there is a good percentage of people who don’t keep up with technology. This typically means, there is probably a percentage of people out their that don’t even know things like caller ID spoofing even exist. Better yet there are many websites out their that offer you these services for a fee. It can also be said that people don’t know the full capabilities of their mobile phones.
John says, “There are many people out their who believe they understand what technology is available to them in their mobile phone. They download a few apps and think they understand. However, when you say the words proximity sensor, halogen sensor, gyroscope, g-force meter, or voice recognition. People often look at you like you are crazy, when in fact, these are just the basic sensors that are used to operate most mobile phones. Combinations of these features and the programming languages used to access them, can turn your cell phone into quite the tracking device if you really got creative.”
John says, “I’d just like to make people aware of what data they are sharing and what data they are exposing by using different types of software. Vermont Internet Design LLC is starting a newsletter that will give subscriber information about technology, and possible exploits.” John says, “This is an effort to keep uninformed people informed about privacy issues. I think its word people hear all the time and don’t understand why. I would like to break it down into laymen terms for people. Electronic data has changed the face of communication and there are a lot of people out there who don’t know why.”
To sign up for the newsletter john has added a place on his website to sign up. http://www.vermontinternetdesign.com
