Terror Group Cloned Cellphones of Rogers Customers & Executives

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051217/rogers_cellphones_cloning_051217/20051217?hub=CTVNewsAt11' target='_blank'>http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051217/rogers_cellphones_cloning_051217/20051217?hub=CTVNewsAt11</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A group linked to terrorist organization Hezbollah has cloned the cellphones of Rogers Communications executives, including that of CEO Ted Rogers, The Globe and Mail reported Saturday. Cloning involves duplicating a cellphone's number and encrypted security code. The story came to light after law professor Susan Drummond returned from a month-long trip abroad, only to find her Rogers cellphone bill was more than $12,000"</i><br /><br />Great job Rogers! It's nice to know that there are only a couple major carriers in Canada, and the largest one does nothing to stop terrorist from taking advantage of their network but still demands the customer pay the bill. :roll: To be fair, Rogers has since changed their tune after Susan Drummond - a law professor, took her case public. They have taken care of her bill, and she got a personal apology from Ted Rogers himself. However, we still don't know if they have stepped up their security in an attempt to prevent any future occurrences. :?

[SnozBerries]

&lt;begin rant>
That looks like a different article than I originally read somewhere else, but it's regarding the same topic.

The original poorly written article that I read tied two somewhat unrelated stories together as one. The original article stated that Susan Drummond had lost her phone, failed to report it as being lost/stolen, and then later received a huge bill because the person/s who found/stole her phone used it. She was required to pay this because she didn't report it lost/stolen in a timely manner. Had she reported it stolen sooner, there wouldn't have been a problem. Because she didn't want to pay this bill, she began investigating ways to get out of paying for it, and came across this second story. She then goes to the media says "look what is happening over there, oh, and I'm stuck with a huge bill because I lost my phone and didn't report it lost/stolen".

The unrelated story was about terrorists being able to clone phones of top Rodgers execs, by sitting outside their corporate offices and somehow capturing the cellular data as phone calls are being made. The same can be done with wireless networks... cellular isn't all that different.

I fail to see the connections between these two events (short of Susan's goal of not paying for her negligence).
&lt;end rant>

[Kris Kumar]

I fail to see the connections between these two events (short of Susan's goal of not paying for her negligence).

Thanks for pointing it out.

[Mike Temporale]

That's pretty interesting. I have read this story in a couple different places and not once was there any mention of her loosing her phone and failing to report it. It would be an interesting twist.

[SnozBerries]

From the original article I read: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051217.wxcellphone1217/BNStory/Technology/

Ms. Drummond quickly determined what had happened: Someone had stolen her phone while she was away.

It doesn't say her phone was cloned, but rather stolen. How long would it take you to notice your phone is stolen? For most of us here, probably a couple hours. For other people maybe a day or two, a week tops. But to finally realize that your phone has been stolen a month or so later, when you receive your bill, is too long in this case. If you don't use your phone that often, why not cancel your service, and just keep it handy for 911 calls. Or buy those prepaid minute plans.

[Kris Kumar]

From the original article I read: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051217.wxcellphone1217/BNStory/Technology/

Ms. Drummond quickly determined what had happened: Someone had stolen her phone while she was away.

It doesn't say her phone was cloned, but rather stolen. How long would it take you to notice your phone is stolen? For most of us here, probably a couple hours. For other people maybe a day or two, a week tops. But to finally realize that your phone has been stolen a month or so later, when you receive your bill, is too long in this case. If you don't use your phone that often, why not cancel your service, and just keep it handy for 911 calls. Or buy those prepaid minute plans.

I will Ms. Drummond the benefit of doubt. Since she was away on a trip. It could be possible that you get back, you see the bill before the phone. ;-)

But the cell company should have hard stops, if my average bill is $70. At $210 it should send a text message to me asking me to confirm the activity.

Credit card companies call you when they see odd transactions. Why can't the cell phone companies do the same? :?

[Mike Temporale]

Thanks Snoz! That's a much better article than the one I linked too.

I agree that there seems to be two different stories here. However, it doesn't change the fact that Rogers should have noticed the change in calling pattern and shutdown her phone. It's a shame that she had to go out and dig up all this news about cloning in order to turn the tide on Rogers. I'm glad she did, as it sheds some light on Rogers and their practices. With any luck it will help clean things up a little. :(

[SnozBerries]

I agree. The phone company should have a procedure set up that attempts to validate the usage. Initially I thought a automated system could be set up which asks the user to text message the carrier some validating piece of info (last 4 digits of CC number), but most security/privacy conscious people wouldn't feel safe doing so. So maybe just sending a text message asking the user to call 1-800-&lt;carrier's number> to verify the usage would be safer.