Cellular Phone Vulnerabilities

When this is done, conversations in the immediate area of the telephone can be monitored over the voice channel.

The user doesn't know the telephone is in the diagnostic mode and transmitting all nearby sounds until he or she tries to place a call. Then, before the cellular telephone can be used to place calls, the unit has to be cycled off and then back on again. This threat is the reason why cellular telephones are often prohibited in areas where classified or sensitive discussions are held.

Vulnerability to Cloning

Cellular telephone thieves don't steal cellular telephones in the usual sense of breaking into a car and taking the telephone hardware. Instead, they monitor the radio frequency spectrum and steal the cell phone pair as it is being anonymously registered with a cell site.

Cloning is the process whereby a thief intercepts the electronic serial number (ESN) and mobile identification number (MIN) and programs those numbers into another telephone to make it identical to yours. Once cloned, the thief can place calls on the reprogrammed telephone as though he were the legitimate subscriber.

Cloning resulted in approximately $650 million dollars worth of fraudulent phone calls in 1996. Police made 800 arrests that year for this offense.5 Each day more unsuspecting people are being victimized by cellular telephone thieves. In one case, more than 1,500 telephone calls were placed in a single day by cellular phone thieves using the number of a single unsuspecting owner.

The ESN and MIN can be obtained easily by an ESN reader, which is like a cellular telephone receiver designed to monitor the control channel. The ESN reader captures the pair as it is being broadcast from a cellular telephone to a cell site and stores the information into its memory. What makes this possible is the fact that each time your cellular telephone is turned on or used, it transmits the pair to the local cellular site and establishes a talk channel. It also transmits the pair when it is relocated from one cell site to another.

Cloning occurs most frequently in areas of high cell phone usage -- valet parking lots, airports, shopping malls, concert halls, sports stadiums, and high-congestion traffic areas in metropolitan cities. No one is immune to cloning, but you can take steps to reduce the likelihood of being the next victim.


Source :http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/ospp/securityguide/V2comint/Cellular.htm