T-Mobile Hack Leaks Celebrity Numbers

By David Worthington | Published February 21, 2005, 8:20 AM

UPDATED Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has had her privacy violated yet again. Over the weekend, details of Miss Hilton's private life, personal photos and the phone numbers of A-List celebrities circulated in droves throughout the Web after a hacker gained unauthorized access to the mobile maven's T-Mobile Sidekick II.

Hilton's address book is a paparazzi's dream come true: Rapper Eminem, actress Lindsay Lohan, Pharrel, Usher, Fred Durst, Usher, Christina Aguilera, Vin Diesel, and Anna Kournikova are just a handful of the stars that had their private telephone numbers and e-mail addresses exposed by the leak of Hilton's electronic black book.

In what may be a case of deja vu all over again, personal photos taken by Hilton with her Sidekick are now flooding the Web.

The hackers also turned up private T-Mobile notes that provide an uncanny and invasive glimpse into the jet setting lifestyle of Hilton as she laid out her day-by-day itinerary. Dance class workouts, trips on private planes and Steve Madden photo shoots fit the heiress's fancy from November into early January.

"T-Mobile's computer forensics and security team is actively investigating to determine how Ms. Hilton's information was obtained. This includes the possibility that someone had access to one of Ms. Hilton's devices and/or knew her account password," a T-Mobile spokesperson told BetaNews.

"Given the sensitivity of the situation, and to protect our customers' information, we are not able to provide specific details of the investigation at this point."

Internet news reports claim that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has opened up an investigation into the incident.

Comments

...combining IP spoofing with cross-site scripting and multiple buffer overflows....

...or somebody guessed that her password was the name of her dog.

Social engineering will ALWAYS be the #1 vulnerability.

Score: 0

|

The story doesnt mention that there were photos taken from her phone of her topless and kissing Eglantina Zingg a MTV Latin America DJ

Score: 0

|

I bet now all the other celebs will be afraid to give their phone #'s to her for fear of another compromise! haha...

Score: 0

|

That is what you get for actually using one of those things.

Score: 0

|

who would want to know what that stork is up to anyway? She's become the most annoying person on the planet.

Score: 0

|

I know ... I hope this news because of the hack ... not because of this loser!

Score: 0

|

I think its outrageous...i was listening to hot 99.5 this morning on the radio and they got to the website all the information was posted on...they printed out the information and started calling people from it. Most of the Celebrities she had on there had already changed they're numbers but there was this one guy who was pretty cool about. He says he met paris a party and paris had gotten his number. Never got called from her...All i'm wondering is who did it?¿

Score: 0

|

Someone with access to T-Mobile I mean its not hard to figure out how they did it but who thats another thing but I suspect when they trace the source it shouldnt be that hard

Score: 0

|

I'm amazed she knew how to use it. Probably she hired someone to work it for her. :)

Score: 0

|

Actually... if you read it... they gained access to her personal SideKick II... meaning they either did it wirelessly (bluetooth) or did so through the T-Mobile network (which has been hacked numerous times lately). It most likely was someone NOT with access to the T-Mobile network internally.

Score: 0

|

I am not claming who did it but I am just assuming that it was one of the fan's that asked paris hilton may I use your phone or something like that or the fan gave her his/her number to her to hack it into their account. But I just want my girl's number Hilary and Lindsay the rest I don't care for.

Score: 0

|

This is the SECOND time they have hacked her account. I guess after the first time, it became easier since they had all the info on the account. It's in her father's name: Richard Hilton.

The first time, they spoofed Caller ID to get into her voice mail and obtained other celebs' phone numbers, etc. This time, it probably involved some social engineering, but like I said, they already knew it was under Richard Hilton, and they probably had his account number, etc.

Hacking something a second time is often much easier than the first time, since all the research is already done.

Score: 0

|

Silverlight 3 goes live on Microsoft's servers

Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash is (unofficially) here, with prospects of higher-speed, higher-resolution video and for the first time, 3D.

Three Android phones on the way from T-Mobile in 2009

T-Mobile's myTouch 3G, launched Wednesday, will be followed by two more Android phones later this year, but neither of them will be HTC's Hero.

Best Buy-brand TVs to get TiVo

A new alliance will place the retailer's own brand alongide the manufacturers, and could also lead to future partnerships on services.

LTE still lacks a voice

The 4G Wireless standard that Verizon hopes to show off before this year is out is still at a loss for (spoken) words.

Data sharing among online advertisers: Is sanity in sight?

Lockdown with Angela Gunn In the middle of a 15-page plea not to get regulated, a spark of smart thinking.

T-Mobile's strategy to combat Apple's iPhone with Android

With a trio of Android phones now in the pipeline for 2009, T-Mobile hopes to break the iPhone's emerging stranglehold.

EC's Reding: Government should act as broker for media downloads

If Internet media services don't step up and build an attractive way for users to start paying for downloads, a commissioner says, government may do the job instead.

Sony TVs get Netflix, still no PS3

Though it's coming in behind LG, Samsung, and Microsoft, Sony will begin to offer Netflix streaming, too.

Google Chrome OS: Too little, too early

Carmi Levy: Wide Angle Zoom Don't start the revolution just yet, says Carmi, who isn't so certain Chrome OS will be the "Windows Killer."

GAO pen test brings the hammer down on federal rent-a-cops

But are the computers to blame for the contract-guard fiasco at FPS?

What's Next: Chrome OS will have at least some friends in high places

Also: South Korea takes another round of DDoS abuse, and Neelie Kroes and Steve Ballmer may shake hands before she exits stage left.

Report: Evidence of further creativity with Windows 7 upgrade prices

A ZDNet blogger did some serious digging for clues as to a reported price break on multiple Windows 7 Home Premium licenses, and may have found it.