Sunday, December 18, 2005

Terrorists may be using your cell phone.

The phones of top executives from Canada's Rogers Telecom had been the target of repeated cloning by a group linked to Hezbollah. (Cloning is the duplication of a cellphone's identity by copying its number and encrypted security code.)
Rogers apparently does have a method of detecting unusual patterns of calls (such as you, having made local calls only for years, suddenly calling Syria daily.) However, they are sometimes unwilling to shut off service.
The main reason is that most of the "clones" are of phones belonging to top executives, both of Rogers and of other companies.
“They were using actually a pretty brilliant psychology. Nobody wants to cut off Ted Rogers' phone or any people that are directly under Ted Rogers, so they took their scanners to our building, like our north building, where our senior top, top, top executives are. They took their scanners there and also to Yorkville, where there are a lot of high rollers and like it would be a major PR blunder to shoot first and ask questions later. . . . Nobody wants to shut off Ted. Even if he is calling Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Kuwait.” said a company spokeperson.

Nice.

Thanks to The Toronto Globe and Mail for the information.

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