Hackers Eye Obama's Blackberry

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oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 10:54

Barack Obama's Blackberry has caught the fancy of the world's most famous hacker, Kevin Mitnik. Though the device belonging to the US president is 'spy-proof' however, according to Mitnik, it is not impossible to hack. He says that it is all the more challenging to hack Obama's Blackberry.

"It's a long shot, but it's possible. You'd probably need to be pretty sophisticated, but there's people out there who are," Fox News quoted Mitnick as saying. Mitnick has a history of serving five years behind bars after pleading guilty to charges of wire and computer fraud for hacking into computer systems at some of the country's largest cell-phone and computer companies during the 1990s. He presently heads the Mitnick Security Consulting.

"If I was the attacker, I would look to Obama's close circle of friends, family and associates and try to compromise their machines at home. The objective would be to get Obama's e-mail address on the BlackBerry," Mitnick

According to Mitnick, the potential hackers would most likely target a person with access to Obama, as their network would be less secure than the President's. He also added that once the hacker got hold of Obama's mail id, it would be easier to lure him into a Web site that had previously been breached in order to transfer "malicious code".

However, Mitnick warns the hackers about the consequences before acting, "The government would go after them full force," he said. AGENCIES