We’ve all heard about the famous phone hacking scandal with the News of the World with the story going back to late in 2006. The newspaper was renowned for being the UK’s oldest and paper and it sold over 2.8 million copies each week. Not only was it known for being popular but it was notorious for its weakness for gossip and sex scandals, some nicknamed the paper; the “News of the Screws”. The News of the World faced a blaze over several allegations of voicemail and message hacking. The targets were from all backgrounds; from celebrities and athletes, to politicians and even the royal family!
It was later stated that by September 2010 a string of well-known people including Sienna Miller, Hugh Grant, Wayne Rooney and even The Duchess of Cambridge had begun legal moves in order to make claims against the paper. Two years later, the international newspaper decided to make confidential settlements totalling £1m to three people who said their phones had been hacked – you would have thought they had learned their lesson!
There came a point in the phone hacking scandal where the police, government and general public were in uproar against the behaviour; it was reported that the newspaper hacked the mobile belonging to the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. When this came out publically Rupert Murdoch closed down the newspaper in the wake of the Milly Dowler revelations. Its final front page stated “Thank you and goodbye” as their final print.
In 2011 the Metropolitan Police decided to launch an investigation, called Operation Weeting, a fresh phone hacking investigation which included looking at the original case in 2006. The investigation slowly opened up more and more allegations. Since then, the figures officially released announce that more than 4,000 people were possible victims of the phone hacking by the News of the World.
How does it work?
Phone hacking is more common than we think; it is defined as the opportunity to access voicemails, calls, messages and email. When mobile phones are first released they have a default factory fitted pin number that allows you to access this personal information from another phone or abroad, many people were informed and encouraged to change that pin, however due to whatever reason very few actually did. This in turn, means that anyone could access your phone by calling it and if the owner did not answer then the generic pin number would be used to access anything stored on that phone.
Who was affected?
Prince William was identified as a target of phone hacking during the 2006 trial. The charges were announced as it emerged that Prince William’s intimate messages to his girlfriend Kate Middleton and brother Prince Harry are believed to have been intercepted. It doesn’t stop there, the famous actress Sienna Miller, who had her mobile phone hacked by the News of the World, settled her case in court in May 2011 for £100,000 pounds in damages for her hardship. A month after the settlement the paper issued a formal apology to Miller.
It was later found that Goodman and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire both pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing messages. The court hearing proved that the police had found a piece of paper that had the title ‘Target Evaluation’, which had a list of names of people affected by the scandal. In 2007 both Goodman and Mulcaire were given sentences for their misconduct, the former was jailed for four months and the latter was given a six month sentence.
Help yourself
This once taboo subject is now a hot topic! Traditionally only a headache relevant to celebrities, smart phone-hacking concerns have crossed over to the masses – anyone who owns a mobile phone or a call handling business could be affected. Is this really a serious problem for us ordinary citizens? Are our voicemail messages so interesting that someone would invade our privacy to listen in? If you want to be proactive with both your personal phone, and, perhaps more especially your business phone, there are several measures you can take to protect yourself against phone hacking:
• Don’t leave your mobile phone alone in a public place at any time
• Be sure you change your default password that comes with a new phone to something more complex
• Avoid using unprotected Bluetooth networks when you are out and about
• If you do want to use any banking apps of your phone when make sure they are protected or better yet don’t use them on your phone at all!
Karen owns 2 businesses so is well aware of the need to be contactable, even outside of business hours. She prioritises time spent with family by using 1st Response when she’s not working, so that she doesn’t get distracted from what’s really important.