Hacking into voicemail is easy, experts say

Byron Acohido reports:

Three giant U.S. cellphone service providers do not require consumers to use voice mailbox PIN codes, making their customers vulnerable to the kind of hacks fueling the British tabloids scandal, security and privacy experts say.

AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint allow subscribers to access voice messages without entering a Personal Identification Number.

This practice makes it trivial for an intruder to fully access the voice mailbox associated with any valid phone number, using a tried-and-true technique dubbed “caller ID spoofing.”