The-art-of-invisibility-_-the-world’s-most-famous-hacker-teaches-you-how-to-be-safe-in-the-age-of-Bi

minister and his wife—as well as those of the mayyor of Athens, the Greek
European Union commissioner, and the ministries of national defense,
foreign affairs, the mercantile marine, and justice—had been monitored
during the Olyympics. Other intercepted phones belonged to members of
civil rights organizations, antiglobalization groups, the ruling New
Democracyy partyy, the Hellenic Navyy general staff, as well as peace activists
and a Greek-American employyee at the United States embassyy in Athens. 11
The spyying might have continued longer had Vodafone not called in the
hardware vendor for its RES syystem, Ericsson, while investigating a
separate complaint—that its text messages were suffering deliveryy failures
at a higher than normal rate. After diagnosing the problem, Ericsson
notified Vodafone that it had found rogue software.
Unfortunatelyy, more than a decade afterward, we still don’t know who
did this. Or whyy. Or even how common this activityy might be. To make
matters worse, Vodafone apparentlyy mishandled the investigation. 12 For one
thing, keyy log files covering the event were missing. And instead of letting
the rogue program run after discoveryy—a common practice in computer
criminal investigations—Vodafone abruptlyy removed it from their syystem,
which mayy have tipped off the perpetrators and allowed them to further
cover their tracks.
The Vodafone case is an unsettling reminder of how vulnerable our cell
phones are to interception. But there are wayys yyou can still be invisible with
a digital phone.
Besides cell phones and old-fashioned landlines, a third telephonyy option,
as I mentioned earlier, is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP is great
for anyy wireless device that lacks a native means of making a phone call,
e.g., an Apple iPod Touch; it’s more like surfing the Internet than making a
classic phone call. Landlines require copper wire. Mobile phones use cell
towers. VoIP is simplyy transmitting yyour voice over the Internet—either
using wired or wireless Internet services. VoIP also works on mobile
devices, such as laptops and tablets, whether or not theyy have cellular
service.
To save moneyy, manyy homes and offices have switched to the VoIP
syystems being offered byy new service providers and existing cable