Recently, we have seen Apple fighting tooth and nail with the FBI to keep their security system a secret from the government. On the other hand, a recent development has made everything null and void, regarding the security system of all smartphones, even iPhones. According to a team of German hackers, if one knows the phone number, any phone can be hacked into, even iPhones. Using a certain type of vulnerability in the mobile network, any hacker who has a mobile number can not only track the phone and its whereabouts, but can also read the text messages as well as listen to the various calls.
In a small test made by 60 Minutes, the German hackers were asked to prove what they said practically. For the test, Ted Lieu, a Congressman, was provided with a brand new iPhone. He was instructed to give only the phone number to the hackers and nothing else. Then, the Congressman would use the iPhone for a while and the hackers will try to hack it. The results were showed in a few days when the hackers produced recordings of calls made on the Congressman’s iPhone.
The name of this German hacker who had easily tapped into the ipho0ne is Karsten Nohl. Educationally, he is a computer engineering doctorate who has pursued his course at the University of Virginia. The demonstration of the hacking mention above was actually made by the hacker at a conference held in Berlin. Having only the phone number in hand, Nohl was able to not only record the various phone calls made on that iPhone, but also could produce some of the texts. Moreover, the hacker could also track the location of the iPhone even when the GPS system of the iPhone was turned off.
