Last night I was kept awake by the constant grinding of the wheels of an extremely overloaded bandwagon. Naturally, I have decided to leap wholeheartedly on to said bandwagon, if for no other reason than to clear up a small but niggling point.
I refer, as the title of this piece suggests, to the current brouhaha surrounding the News of the World phone hacking saga. That niggling little point I wish to drag to your attention is the use of the word "hacking". Now, I am not a hacker to any real extent, but I have been trained in the techniques used in proper hacking (over some time and at considerable expense) and continue to keep half an eye on the latest developments in this rather murky but nevertheless interesting field. I therefore feel qualified to point out the following: the NOTW didn't "hack" anything, unless you are willing to consider mowing the lawn as "farming". The NOTW used the default access codes for the voice-mail systems of mobile operators to listen to people's messages. Let this be a warning to you all now: CHANGE YOUR VOICE MAIL PIN NUMBER. It's an option on your voice mail menu, and is very easy to do. Do it. Do it now.
This is a very brief post because I have the attention span of a cabbage these days. Just wanted to mention it.
Rant over.
Well said Sir.
ReplyDeleteAn excellent point well made.
:0)
And folks, don't forget to:
"CHANGE YOUR VOICE MAIL PIN NUMBER"