Paris Hilton's Hacker Sentenced
Private Numbers of Celebrities Flood the Internet
By Jake Easton
R A D O K N E W S
Posted: February 20, 2005 3:12pm EST
Updated: September 14, 2005 4:42pm EST | |
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· Update: Paris Hilton Hacker Gets 11 Months in Jail. A Massachusetts teenager who reportedly hacked into Paris Hilton's cell phone account has been sentenced to 11 months in a juvenile facility. Celebrity phone numbers stored in Hilton's cell phone were posted online when her account was hacked earlier this year. A Washington Post report on Wednesday identified Hilton as a victim of the 17-year-old Massachusetts boy. 
New York — Paris Hilton's T-Mobile cellphone address book has been hacked - a security breach that has caused hundreds of high-profile celebrities to run for cover as their private phones and answering services continue to be flooded with calls from around the world.
To protect the privacy of the individuals involved, Tabloid Column is not listing the phone numbers, but can report that celebrities from Hollywood, to New York, to Florida - and beyond - are included in Hilton's massive address book.
How Not to make friends in Hollywood
Hilton's address book contains a Hollywood Who's Who list of telephone numbers and email addresses for high-profile celebrities.
For example, in southern California (310 & 323 area codes), there is Christina Aguilera, Ashley Olsen, Ashlee Simpson, Vin Diesel - even OJ Simpson attorney Robert Shapiro.
Then in south Florida (305) there is a not-so-happy Anna Kournikova, in New York there's Eminem and Lindsay Lohan, to the north is Avril Lavigne in Ontario, Canada, and even an outraged Victoria Gotti in Long Island.
In addition to all the phone numbers, there are dozens of private email addresses, nude and promiscuous photos, and emailed notes and correspondence.
This appears to be at least the second security breach for T-Mobile. A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities.
NBC and Fox News is reporting that the handheld Hilton used was a Blackberry, made by RIM, while others are reporting that it was a Sidekick made by Danger, Inc. We will stay on the story and confirm the specific cellphone model as soon as it is available.
Update: It's Confirmed to be a Sidekick II. Bryan Zidar, a spokesman for T-Mobile verified the authenticity of this story "Her information is on the Internet. We don't know if it was hacked or if someone got a hold of her password." According to Zidar, Hilton used the Sidekick II (photo above), a multi-purposed personal electronic device that uses an online server to store at least some information, including phone numbers.
T-Mobile's Zidar added that since Sunday night a number of sites had posted Hilton's personal contacts, but the sites kept changing as the Secret Service, which Zidar said investigates computer crimes, shuts them down. "As soon as one comes up the secret service is all over it," he said.
Update II: Sex Tape Cash-In?. Celebrity Justice is analyzing the personal notes hacked from her cellphone - and wondering if it reveals a sex tape cash-in. According to Celebrity Justice, there was correspondence with the Internet porn company that released clips of the home video featuring Paris and her then-boyfriend Rick Solomon. When the clips were first released in 2003, Paris, Mavard (the Seattle Internet porn company) and Solomon began a war of lawsuits. Paris was outraged over the Internet clips and Solomon denied he released them. Then suddenly, one by one, the lawsuits were quietly dropped, according to the Celebrity Justice report.
Hilton's rep said the heiress has changed her number and is still reeling from the debacle, according to the New York Post. She had even promoted the Sidekick II in TV ads. "We're just trying to find out how this all happened. I have no idea what is going on or if the FBI is investigating," said her publicist, Gina Hoffman, who added that the heirhead is in Florida filming a new season of the "The Simple Life."
Update III: How Paris Got Hacked. Like many online service providers, T-Mobile requires users to answer a "secret question" if they forget their passwords. According to the O'Reilly Network, for Hilton's account, the secret question was "What is your favorite pet's name?" By correctly providing the answer, any internet user could change Hilton's password and freely access her account. Hilton makes no secret of her affection for her Chihuahua. Last August, Hilton offered a reward of $5,000 when her beloved Tinkerbell disappeared after the house she shared with sister Nicole was burglarized.
Update IV: 'I want to apologize.' In an interview with Us Weekly magazine, on newsstands Friday, Hilton says: "I feel horrible that, once again, someone has invaded my privacy. I want to apologize to all my friends and family. I don't know why this stuff always happens to me, but I wish it wouldn't anymore.
Update V: Paris now has worms. A new worm that promises explicit pictures of hotel heiress Paris Hilton is rapidly becoming more common. Sober.K is replicating itself so much that it now accounts for 10 percent of all viruses detected in the last 24 hours. 
Related News
· MSNBC: Hacker reads Paris Hilton’s e-mail. Poor Paris Hilton doesn’t have too much luck when it comes to privacy issues. The partying heiress has been the victim of a hacker who somehow got access to her Blackberry and was reading her private e-mails, says a source.
· Engadget: Paris Hilton’s hacked Sidekick releases unedited tell-all. Hackers managed to dig up dirty camphone shots (right alongside shots of her holding a baby and hanging out with kids—oh, Paris), her notebook, and her address book, which has had such high-brow, mover-and-shakers.
· Daily News: Paris' li'l black book is hacked. The Internet is not kind to Paris Hilton. The vampy hotel heiress has already seen her infamous sex tape with an ex-boyfriend spread across cyberspace. Now hackers have apparently put the entire contents of her cell phone on the Web - including the numbers of her famous friends, whose phones started ringing off the hook Saturday night.
"I got 100 calls in two hours," said Victoria Gotti. "I didn't want to take the phones off the hook because my oldest son was on a date.
· Fox News: Paris Hilton's B-List Blackberry Goes Public. Nitwit heiress and one-time homegrown porn star Paris Hilton is going to have a lot of people at the phone company working overtime today. It seems that some computer hacker broke into her Blackberry and published her address book on the Internet.
· Mobiledia: Paris Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick Hacked. It seems Paris doesn't have much luck these days. A similar incident happened a month earlier when a hacker broke into her BlackBerry account and exposed her private emails. "It became obvious to her what was going on," says a source. "She was pretty upset about it. It's one thing to have people looking at your sex tapes, but having people reading your personal e-mails is a real invasion of privacy."
· CNN: Paris Hilton hacking victim? Paris Hilton has a problem keeping her personal life personal. The slinky socialite's latest saga involves highly sensitive details including phone numbers and personal notes posted for all to see on the Internet in what could be a case of mobile device hacking.
· Associated Press: Hilton Cell Phone Numbers Posted on Net. Paris Hilton is finding more than her body exposed on the Internet after computer hackers posted phone numbers online that had been stored through her cell phone.
· Canadian Press: Canadian stars among those on Paris Hilton's publicized cellphone list. While many of the numbers are predictably based in California or New York, a few are closer to home - with the familiar area codes of Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. "I've gotten about 400 phone calls today," said an irate Phil Lasry, whose Montreal telephone number appeared in the directory. "It's extremely annoying."
· Does Paris' Cell Phone Scandal Reveal Sex Tape Cash In? While the stars were disparagingly trying to ward off thousands of unwanted phone calls, Celebrity Justice discovered a couple of interesting personal notes stored in Paris' phone.
· NY Post: Inside the scary tale of Paris' purloined privacy. More than 500 big-name acquaintances, including Luke Wilson, Adrien Brody, Eminem and tennis stars Andy Roddick and Mark Philippoussis — not to mention recently separated San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom — had their numbers and e-mails posted on Web sites.
· Reuters: Will Paris do more Sidekick cellphone commercials? In an ironic twist, Hilton has appeared in commercials for the Sidekick II, which allows users to send e-mail and instant messages, browse the Web and snap pictures. "I'm sure a lot of celebrities are probably throwing their Sidekicks away right now," said Tristan Henderson, a research assistant professor at Dartmouth College's Center for Mobile Computing.
· NY Daily News: World wild Web of Paris hacker. A computer hacker who is said to have lifted photos from Paris Hilton's now famous T-Mobile Sidekick also burgled the T-Mobile account of the very New York Secret Service agent who was tracking him down. Agent Peter Cavicchia has since left the agency. The hacker, 22-year-old Nicolas Jacobsen, pleaded guilty on Feb. 15 to invading 400 T-Mobile accounts, including Cavicchia's and Hilton's.
· Magid: What Paris Hilton Has Done For You. Names and numbers from Paris Hilton’s cell phone have been stolen - possibly by a hacker. This may turn out to be Ms. Hilton’s greatest contribution to mankind. Thanks to her, you can bet that the entire mobile device industry will focus a lot more attention on security.
· O'Reilly: How Paris Got Hacked. Like many online service providers, T-Mobile requires users to answer a "secret question" if they forget their passwords. According to the O'Reilly Network, for Hilton's account, the secret question was "What is your favorite pet's name?" By correctly providing the answer, any internet user could change Hilton's password and freely access her account. Hilton makes no secret of her affection for her Chihuahua. Last August, Hilton offered a reward of $5,000 when her beloved Tinkerbell disappeared after the house she shared with sister Nicole was burglarized.
· NY Daily News: Paris is burning in cell hell. The super-rich hotel heiress is distraught that her pals' phone numbers and tawdry text messages were swiped and spilled all over the Internet by computer hackers. "I don't know why this stuff always happens to me, but I wish it wouldn't anymore," the vampy 24-year-old told Us Weekly in her first interview since her cell phone was breached.
· CNN: Paris Hilton: 'I want to apologize.' In an interview with Us Weekly magazine, on newsstands Friday, Hilton says: "I feel horrible that, once again, someone has invaded my privacy. I want to apologize to all my friends and family. I don't know why this stuff always happens to me, but I wish it wouldn't anymore.
· Paris Hilton worm spreads fast. A new worm that promises explicit pictures of hotel heiress Paris Hilton is rapidly becoming more common. Sober.K is replicating itself so much that it now accounts for 10 percent of all viruses detected in the last 24 hours.
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