the radio wave transmissions from the cell phones of legitimate subscribers. After cloning, both the legitimate and the fraudulent cell phones have the same ESN/MIN combination and cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cell phone from the legitimate one. The legitimate phone user then gets billed for the cloned phone's calls. Call your carrier if you think you have been a victim of cloning fraud. The fraudster can make calls on your behalf or send messages etc and it would be easy to tarnish your reputation in this manner. For cell phone cloning fraud, the cellular equipment manufacturing industry has deployed authentication systems that have proven to be a very effective countermeasure to cloning, however it still does happen.
There is another interesting method. There are chips available which can be set into a cell phone, you can then gift this cell phone to an unsuspecting victim, provided you know him. Perhaps you can make him win a contest of some sort. The cell phone now becomes your bug, something that the user is sure to carry around with him. You activate it by simply calling this fellow from a preset number. What happens is that he get no inkling that a call is being received, the phone automatically picks it u, there is no change in the display or any indication that the cell phone is now transmitting everything to the person at the other end. So if you are paranoid enough, it makes sense to not accept such gifts from people. If you don’t have any security threat then chances are no ones going to gift you one either! Of course to counter the threat of electronic eavesdropping there are counter measures available such as encryption. Again its not for the usual people, wont be cost effective that way, but you can always find more details. It is an entirely different topic per se and would make material for another article. So keep coming back!
Saturday, August 27, 2005
What Is Cell Phone Cloning Fraud?
Every cell phone is supposed to have a unique factory-set electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number (MIN). A cloned cell phone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the ESN and MIN belonging to another (legitimate) cell phone. Unscrupulous people can obtain valid ESN/MIN combinations by illegally monitoring the radio wave transmissions from the cell phones of legitimate subscribers. After cloning, both the legitimate and the fraudulent cell phones have the same ESN/MIN combination and cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cell phone from the legitimate one. The legitimate phone user then gets billed for the cloned phone's calls. Call your carrier if you think you have been a victim of cloning fraud. The fraudster can make calls on your behalf or send messages etc and it would be easy to tarnish your reputation in this manner. For cell phone cloning fraud, the cellular equipment manufacturing industry has deployed authentication systems that have proven to be a very effective countermeasure to cloning, however it still does happen.
There is another interesting method. There are chips available which can be set into a cell phone, you can then gift this cell phone to an unsuspecting victim, provided you know him. Perhaps you can make him win a contest of some sort. The cell phone now becomes your bug, something that the user is sure to carry around with him. You activate it by simply calling this fellow from a preset number. What happens is that he get no inkling that a call is being received, the phone automatically picks it u, there is no change in the display or any indication that the cell phone is now transmitting everything to the person at the other end. So if you are paranoid enough, it makes sense to not accept such gifts from people. If you don’t have any security threat then chances are no ones going to gift you one either! Of course to counter the threat of electronic eavesdropping there are counter measures available such as encryption. Again its not for the usual people, wont be cost effective that way, but you can always find more details. It is an entirely different topic per se and would make material for another article. So keep coming back!
the radio wave transmissions from the cell phones of legitimate subscribers. After cloning, both the legitimate and the fraudulent cell phones have the same ESN/MIN combination and cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cell phone from the legitimate one. The legitimate phone user then gets billed for the cloned phone's calls. Call your carrier if you think you have been a victim of cloning fraud. The fraudster can make calls on your behalf or send messages etc and it would be easy to tarnish your reputation in this manner. For cell phone cloning fraud, the cellular equipment manufacturing industry has deployed authentication systems that have proven to be a very effective countermeasure to cloning, however it still does happen.
There is another interesting method. There are chips available which can be set into a cell phone, you can then gift this cell phone to an unsuspecting victim, provided you know him. Perhaps you can make him win a contest of some sort. The cell phone now becomes your bug, something that the user is sure to carry around with him. You activate it by simply calling this fellow from a preset number. What happens is that he get no inkling that a call is being received, the phone automatically picks it u, there is no change in the display or any indication that the cell phone is now transmitting everything to the person at the other end. So if you are paranoid enough, it makes sense to not accept such gifts from people. If you don’t have any security threat then chances are no ones going to gift you one either! Of course to counter the threat of electronic eavesdropping there are counter measures available such as encryption. Again its not for the usual people, wont be cost effective that way, but you can always find more details. It is an entirely different topic per se and would make material for another article. So keep coming back!
Cell Phone Tapping
Cell phones have become omnipresent ; no one even spares another glance at someone hurrying along the sidewalk and seems to be talking to his own self. Of course he is using the handsfree and chatting to his contact who may be on the other side of the globe for all we care.
Considering that we use a cell phone even in the presence of a land line now that call rates are mostly on par, perhaps we should be evaluating security concerns about this risk. While it is common knowledge that authorities have had access to our calls, we were satisfied by the fact that this capability could not be mis-used. Even the authorities needed to get permission from a court of law with specific reasons for their wanting to do so. (Of course I assume that you did nothing to piss off the CBI or an agency on that level. In case you already did then God Help You, those people have technology which would leave you dumbstruck, as well as a free hand to use it when they think necessary).
With landlines, it was difficult to tap the phone, especially since they would need to put a physical bug on the wires which meant access to the lines and a kind of sophistication which would not be easily learnt. However with things going wireless, it becomes easier. Interception devices are now available that can record conversations. If you suspected the presence of these things and sent confidential data by SMS, then it was in vain since these things are powerful enough to get these too. To add salt to the wounds, the conversations and messages are neatly indexed and stored in a data base for future reference. These interceptors are cleverly disguised in 
forms of briefcases, suitcases or perhaps even a rugged outdoor case (cant be smaller than those since a particular size is required to be effective, maybe with more advances in technology we will have smaller ones.) While they do have their own power units which could last for some time, its better if you gave them a power supply since spying on someone is not something you do for an hour or two. Days of patience are required before you can have results. Don’t worry about power points though, these things are designed to be inconspicuous; you are ready to go even with a car cigarette lighter point.
These portable interception devices cost someplace between 20,000 dollars upwards depending on the features but they do come with a guarantee of getting you behind bars if you are not a law enforcing agent. Another option is to use the cell phone cloning or SIM card cloning method. However this requires you to have access to the device for some time.
IPOD Killers!
There is an underground buzz that has been going around in the music industry of late. iPods and Mp3 players, even Discmans are running around scared. Cellphones have turned assassins and are ruthlessly gobbling up the market share of all of these players.
Seriously though, cell phones keep getting smarter all the time. Already people who used to carry around two devices like a handheld (PDA) and cell phone have given up both and opted for a smartphone which can easily perform both these features. After the PDA's it is now the turn of the music players. Cell phones have some inherent advantages, users are afraid to carry about too many devices since that increases the chanves of loosing them. given an option everyone will go in for a device which can do all the things that the user wants. Already digital cameras are used only for special occassions or when you really need print quality photos, rest of the time it is the cell phone on which this duty falls. Other advantages included that being a tool for connectivity itself, it would be extremely easy to load new songs on to the phone. Example of this being that most phones today have bluetooth, GPRS, IR, USB and so many different options that the user is more then certain to have his pick.
In case of music, the only factor that made users still opt in for Mp3 players was the lack of capacity. Even handsets that had built in Mp3 players seldom went above 32-64 Megabytes. This was a serious bottleneck for music fans. Higher capacity cards of 256 or 512 Megs were too slow to browse through and people decided to wait till technology caught on. And while Apple's iPod is considered a runaway success, its millions units sold annually pales in comparison to the hundreds of millions of mobile phones sold last year. The mobile industry is poised to grow exponentially.
Another problem was that as playlists got longer, it became more difficult to find songs of your preference. It isnt exactly fun searching for songs through a long list without a pointer device like a mouse to aid you. As the world recognises the growing importance of a cell phone in areas other than simply talking, applications are rapidly being created so that each and every whim and fancy of the user is adhered to. A company in Seattle , Melodeo's has created a software which allows the user to browse through a long playlist, which may even go into hundreds without any trouble. Melodeo’s simple, intuitive user interface also makes it easy for users to shop, preview, purchase, play and store their selections. Users can navigate by artist, genre, song and album title among others, all with detailed information about each track—even album art.And their patented Powersearch technology makes it easy to type using the handset’s dialing pad, letting users find their tunes with a minimum of keystrokes. When you purchase a song, after selecting through the catalogue and listening to the ones you think are intersting, you can opt to go in for dual download. This means that you pay only once for the content, a higher quality version stays back on the PC while a smaller and easier to play one resides on the cell phone memory.
Songs on cell phones are just one way in which the "handys" are taking over the world. Perhaps this is what was thought when Sci-Fi writers envisioned a product that would allow humans to be reachable anywhere on the planet (via video calls or voice calls), carry their data with them which would include music, work related stuff as well as emergency tracing service. Undoubtedly cell phones are not just iPod killers but are eating away into competiting devices at a phenomenal rate.
Songs on cell phones are just one way in which the "handys" are taking over the world. Perhaps this is what was thought when Sci-Fi writers envisioned a product that would allow humans to be reachable anywhere on the planet (via video calls or voice calls), carry their data with them which would include music, work related stuff as well as emergency tracing service. Undoubtedly cell phones are not just iPod killers but are eating away into competiting devices at a phenomenal rate.
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
2 35 am August 24 2005--->My life changed!
2 35 am August 24 2005--->My life changed!
Now it has got a new meaning..an aim! And i have to ..... hmm...enuf!! it was jus 10 mins b4..and ...am not in a mood to write any more...so..bye all..
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