Journal rabenja's Journal: Al Quaeda Hacks Phone System(?) 1
Log of a chat session from a few minutes ago from a friend in Texas:
K: my client got their phone systems hacked by al-qaeda
that's my exciting news of the day
haha
Sent at 3:16 PM on Monday
me: for real?
K: yeah
me: what system they use?
K: happened late last night
beats me
i just heard facilities talkin
[the telephone company] suspended their account
so they are without long distance right now
until they redo the phone setup
me: they use VOIP?
K: no
from what their Facilities director told me, al-qaeda probably happened upon their main number by accident
noticed they used all default settings
then took advantage of the automated switchboard and call forwarding features to make calls to eritrea, somalia, luxembourg, and other places
[the telephone company] noticed the activity and the number they were dialing in with
guess it was on some flagged list
and suspended the account immediately
pretty crazy huh
straight out of a movie =P
me: some sophistication there, points to a concerted effort at hacking
K: yeah, i wish i could have stayed around to see what happened but i had a meeting
it certainly piqued my interest
Sent at 3:24 PM on Monday
Underestimated (Score:2)
This kind of thing has nothing to do with VOIP, just about every company phone system has a call forwarding option to forward all calls to an extension to another number (normally a cellphone). "Hackers" just call in, find a working extension without a password that sounds rarely used (ie not sales or support) and punch in the number they want to reach. After that, 1-800-whatever ext 666 calls Somalia for free.