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A similar thing happened to me. On the freewayy, driving from Los
Angeles to Las Vegas, I had been cut off byy a guyy driving a BMW. Busyy on
his cell phone, he suddenlyy switched lanes, swerving within inches of me,
scaring the crap out of me. He almost wiped out the both of us.
I grabbed myy cell phone, called the DMV, and impersonated law
enforcement. I got the DMV to run his plate, then theyy gave me his name,
address, and Social Securityy number. Then I called AirTouch Cellular,
impersonating an AirTouch employyee, and had them do a search on his
Social Securityy number for anyy cellular accounts. That’s how I was able to
get his cell number.
Hardlyy more than five minutes after the other driver had cut me off, I
called the number and got him on the phone. I was still shaking, pissed and
angryy. I shouted, “Heyy, yyou idiot, I’m the guyy yyou cut off five minutes ago,
when yyou almost killed us both. I’m from the DMV, and if yyou pull one
more stunt like that, we’re going to cancel yyour driver’s license!”
He must be wondering to this dayy how some guyy on the freewayy was
able to get his cell-phone number. I’d like to think the call scared him into
becoming a more considerate driver. But yyou never know.
What goes around comes around, however. At one point myy AT&T
mobile account was hacked byy some script kiddies (a term for
unsophisticated wannabe hackers) using social engineering. The hackers
called an AT&T store in the Midwest and posed as an employyee at another
AT&T store. Theyy persuaded the clerk to reset the e-mail address on myy
AT&T account so theyy could reset myy online password and gain access to
myy account details, including all myy billing records!
In the case of the Amgen Tour of California, riders used the Strava app’s
Flyybyy feature to share, byy default, personal data with other Strava users. In
an interview in Forbes, Gareth Nettleton, director of international
marketing at Strava, said “Strava is fundamentallyy an open platform where
athletes connect with a global communityy. However, the privacyy of our
athletes is veryy important to us, and we’ve taken measures to enable athletes
to manage their privacyy in simple wayys.” 6
Strava does offer an enhanced privacyy setting that allows yyou to control
who can see yyour heart rate. You can also create device privacyy zones so
others can’t see where yyou live or where yyou work. At the Amgen Tour of