{"id":11562,"date":"2011-07-09T13:45:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-09T13:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/cellular-phone-hacking\/"},"modified":"2011-08-18T17:21:32","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T17:21:32","slug":"cellular-phone-hacking","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking","title":{"rendered":"Cellular Phone Hacking"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_cellular_phone_hacking_mean\">What Does Cellular Phone Hacking Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Cellular phone hacking is a questionable practice whereby a third party gains access to an individual\u2019s cellular phone through a variety of methods. The legality of cell phone hacking is heavily dependent on who is doing the hacking. For example, law enforcement and national governments often use cell phone hacking methods to apprehend criminals and monitor dissidents. <\/p>\n<p>There have been many high profile instances of illegal cell phone hacking, particularly of celebrity phones. In 2007, a former journalist of the tabloid \u201cNews of the World\u201d was charged with attempting to hack the phones of royal aides. In 2011, the same tabloid came under fire for hacking the voicemail of a 13 year old girl who was missing, possibly interfering with the investigation into what eventually proved to be her murder.<\/p>\n<p>This term is also known as cell phone hacking, cell phone spying, phone hacking, or phreaking.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_cellular_phone_hacking\">Techopedia Explains Cellular Phone Hacking<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Simply put, cell phone hacking occurs when someone else gets into your phone. Depending on their motives, the hacker may simply view data stored on the phone, broadcast your location or send messages to your contacts under your name. <\/p>\n<p>However, more serious instances of cell phone hacking involve hackers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Deleting data <\/li>\n<li>Adding malicious programs <\/li>\n<li>Gaining access to sensitive information like bank accounts <\/li>\n<li>Transcribing private conversations <\/li>\n<li>Storing copies of texts and emails <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Common ways that a hacker gains access to your cellular phone include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bluehacking &#8211; gaining access to your phone when it is a discoverable device on an unprotected Bluetooth network <\/li>\n<li>Unnoticed access to an unlocked phone left unattended in a public space <\/li>\n<li>Mimicry of a trusted network or cell phone tower <\/li>\n<li>Phone cloning by copying the SIM card of the target phone <\/li>\n<li>Malware apps that install malicious software or make changes to firmware <\/li>\n<li>Phishing via mobile optimized sites <\/li>\n<li>Fraudulent account resets using known information about the user (phone number, birth date, address and so on) <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With so many methods available and more sensitive data being stored on smartphones and mobile devices, cellular phone security has become a major concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Cellular Phone Hacking Mean? Cellular phone hacking is a questionable practice whereby a third party gains access to an individual\u2019s cellular phone through a variety of methods. The legality of cell phone hacking is heavily dependent on who is doing the hacking. For example, law enforcement and national governments often use cell phone [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[218,233,236,219],"class_list":["post-11562","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-cybersecurity","definitioncat-encryption","definitioncat-network-management","definitioncat-networks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Cellular Phone Hacking? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Cellular Phone Hacking and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cellular Phone Hacking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Cellular Phone Hacking and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-18T17:21:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Cellular Phone Hacking\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-07-09T13:45:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-18T17:21:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking\"},\"wordCount\":348,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26355\/cellular-phone-hacking\",\"name\":\"What is Cellular Phone Hacking? 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