Text Hackers Hassle Houston Zoo
Posted on: Tuesday, 6 May 2008, 21:00 CDT
Houston Zoo officials say they've asked the FBI to help track down an apparent cell-phone hacker who is inundating their switchboard with phone calls.
Zoo officials told the Houston Chronicle the text messages feature the zoo's phone number and a cryptic message urging the recipient to call.
The result has been surges of calls. The zoo received 3,500 Sunday, which is about 10 times the normal rate.
We had hoped the problem would blow over, but the calls keep coming and coming, said zoo spokesman Brian Hill.
The suspicion is that the hacker somehow got into mobile phone systems and gained access to the address books stored in individual cell phones. Once inside, a bot begins churning out text messages to the folks in the address book.
Cell carriers said they could find no evidence their systems had been compromised; however, recipients were urged not to respond to any suspicious texts -- especially if they contained the zoo's phone number.
Source: United Press International
User Comments (1)
| 1. |
Posted by Anonymous in Mpls on 05/08/2008, 14:06 This is trivial to execute, and requires no knowledge of cell phones or hacking skills. Plenty of websites allow you to send anonymous or pseudonymous SMS messages. There's a simple lesson here for cell phone users: Just like you shouldn't open email attachments from folks you don't know, you should also ignore SMS messages from unknown sources. |
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