Foil hackers, talk in code
"It is possible to duplicate someone’s SIM card and send and receive calls from that SIM card placed in another phone.
"Special tools to read and edit SIM cards are needed and can easily be purchased on the Internet. A cellphone is nothing more than a glorified two-way radio or walkie-talkie," said Nel.
"If you can intercept the frequency with a scanner and have tools to decrypt the digital data and are within a good range of the target phone, you will be able to monitor the communication."
Nel said someone could steal another person’s identity simply by knowing their cellphone number.
"You can then send anyone text messages pretending to be that person. Imagine you receive an SMS from a person you trust asking you to e-mail him or her your credit card number?"
Another threat to cellphone data is Bluetooth and infrared connections on phones.
"Many remote tools are available to hack into a third party’s cellphone if you can breach the network settings on it.
"To prevent this, you need to have your network setting set up in such a way that it will make unauthorised access very difficult if not possible."
Nel has one piece of advice for cellphone users: "If you have to discuss sensitive matters over any medium that could be monitored, rather consider talking in code like ‘the person we met yesterday’, the mission we are currently on’."
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