IN NOVEMBER 2005, three senior aides to Britain’s royal family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones. Messages they had never listened to were somehow appearing in their mailboxes as if heard and saved. Equally peculiar were stories that began appearing about Prince William in one of the country’s biggest tabloids, News of the World.
It’s a story about journalists hacking subjects’ phones, but the technique could easily be used against journalists too. Most voicemail systems either have a default PIN, or no PIN at all (they depend on Caller ID to tell them that the person calling to check a phone’s voicemail is calling from the phone itself – Caller ID can be easily faked). If you use voicemail in your job, change your PIN!