21 February 2005
Paris Hilton's phone hacked and posted online
Heiress and amateur porn celebrity victim of mobile hack.
By Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
Hackers have posted the mobile phone address book of hotel heiress
and amateur porn celebrity Paris Hilton on the Internet, putting the
phone numbers and e-mail addresses of, among others, Eminem and
Christina Aguilera in the public domain.
A copy of Hilton's T-Mobile mobile phone address book appeared on the
website of a group calling itself "illmob". The address book contains
information on over 500 of Hilton's acquaintances. It is not known
how the information was obtained, but the release of the contact book
may be further fallout from a hack of T-Mobile's servers that came to
light last month.
A second site posted all the details plus photos taken using the
phone's in-built camera by Ms Hilton, plus several emails sent
through the device.
The Hilton address book is a simple HTML table listing the phone
numbers and e-mail addresses for acquaintances, along with other
useful information, such as the number of the San Francisco Hilton
Hotel and celebrity attorney Robert Shapiro.
The leak is bound to prompt a furious round of unplanned number
changes among Hilton's coterie, after fans and curious Web surfers
learned of the hack and began dialling their favorite celebrities.
Eminem's phone number was changed. Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst's
voice mailbox was full. Tennis star Anna Kournikova's number was
busy, despite repeated attempts to get through. Robert Shapiro's
answering machine picked up when called and provided a number to page
the star attorney in an emergency.
There was no answer at Hilton's home, nor did sister Nicky Hilton
answer calls to her phone. Reached by phone, actor Kevin Connelly, of
the cable television show "Entourage," said he had received between
200 and 300 phone calls since early Sunday, as word of the hacked
address book spread across the Internet. Connelly plays opposite
Adrian Grenier in the HBO show about a young celebrity and his
colorful entourage of old school chums. He declined to comment on
whether he knew Hilton or why his name appeared in her T-mobile phone
list.
Connelly, who received at least one other call while on the line with
this reporter, said he would likely change his phone number Monday to
stop the harassment.
It was unclear Sunday how the cell phone contact list was obtained.
However, Hilton's was one of a number of celebrity cell phones that
was reportedly compromised in an attack on T-Mobile's network that
netted information on 400 of the company's customers, including
sensitive information from the account of a US Secret Service agent.
In January, the mobile carrier acknowledged that Nicholas Jacobsen, a
California-based hacker, compromised its internal computer systems in
2003 and viewed the Social Security numbers of 400 customers. T-
Mobile has yet to respond to requests for comment.
Jacobsen pleaded guilty last week to one felony charge of accessing a
protected computer and causing reckless damage. He is scheduled to be
sentenced in May and faces a maximum possible sentence of five years
imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
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