Investigation reveals how easy it can be to access voicemails without PINs

Phone hacking dominated the news during the Leveson Inquiry, but despite the high-profile exposure, voicemails are still at risk.

During an investigation by The Register, journalist Simon Rockman was able to use a Skype-style Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) handset to access the inboxes of EE, Three and Orange customers.

EE, which owns the Orange and T-Mobile networks, has now fixed the flaw as a result of the investigation, but Three is said to still be at risk.



During an investigation by The Register, journalist Simon Rockman was able to use a Skype-style VoIP service to access the inboxes of EE, Three and Orange customers. By linking a mobile number to a VoIP handset, Rockman was able to trick the inbox into thinking it was the number's owner and access the inboxes

WHAT IS VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL (VOIP)?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is sometimes referred to as Voice over Networks or (VoN), Voice over Broadband (VoB) and sometimes Internet Telephony.

VoIP lets people make free, or low cost, telephone calls over the web.

Popular VoIP services include Viber and Skype.

VoIP can be used anywhere in the world and can call landline and mobile numbers.

When you call voicemail from a handset registered with the account, the inbox is automatically opened because it assumes the caller is the phone’s owner.

But when calls are made from another phone, users are asked for a PIN - or denied access if no PIN has been set up.

By linking the mobile number, and therefore a voicemail account, to a VoIP handset, Rockman was able to trick the inbox into thinking it was the number’s owner on three of the major network operators.

When calling the external voicemail number on EE, the inbox was accessed immediately.

It was the same situation on Three.

On Orange, Rockman was able to not only access the voicemails but also change the voicemail greeting.

Although this access was granted intermittently - sometimes access was given automatically, while at other times it asked for a PIN.



EE, which owns the Orange and T-Mobile networks, has now fixed the flaw, but Three is said to still be at risk. Three offers advice on how to set up a voicemail PIN on its support page, and recommends its users select the option that asks for their phone number and PIN every time they access their voicemail

It is worth noting that accessing someone else's voicemail account without their permission is illegal and falls under computer misuse legislation.

EE told MailOnline: 'Our engineers have worked hard since then to identify the root fault and work on a fix.

'We can now confirm that we have urgently updated our systems and patched the issues raised in the article.'

Three offers advice on how to set up a voicemail PIN on its support page, and recommends its users select the option that asks for their phone number and PIN every time they access their voicemail to get the highest level of security.

This would effectively stop people accessing the account in the way The Register demonstrated.

Credit Mailonline.com

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2613258/Are-voicemails-STILL-risk-hacked-Investigation-reveals-easy-access-inboxes-without-PINs.html#ixzz306d772qY

Death & Taxes: A Letter From A Private Banker

 

Submitted by Michael O'Brian via Sovereign Man blog,

One of the founding fathers of the United States famously remarked that death and taxes are the only certainties in life.

And as tax day rolled around once again in the US, individuals the length and breadth of the country were participating in the annual ritual of filing their income tax returns with the federal government.

Outside of the United States, banks, custodians, brokers and investment advisers are also working to meet a tax deadline coming soon—registration with the United States Internal Revenue Service to comply with FATCA.

Registration under FATCA has long been viewed as inevitable for foreign financial institutions. Most of these institutions were also quick to realise that FATCA would set a precedent—automatic exchange of information programs would follow elsewhere.

And over the last few years, as FATCA was being implemented, policy-makers the world over have indeed come to see FATCA as the tax compliance model to emulate.

The financial crisis and the witch-hunting scandals involving offshore accounts in recent years created an environment that was receptive to proposals for the multilateral exchange of tax information between and among countries.

Concerns about data protection and privacy issues posed by FATCA and FATCA-like mechanisms were drowned out by grand declarations about the principles of increased transparency and information sharing.

In June last year the G-8 released a declaration that directed that “tax authorities across the world should automatically share information to fight the scourge of tax evasion.”

Less than a year later and 44 countries have agreed to a September 2017 deadline for the ‘Automatic Exchange of Information’ between governments.

The financial information to be reported under the OECD’s standard includes investment income from interest and dividends, as well as account balances and sales proceeds from financial assets.

EU Council chief Herman Van Rompuy gladly sounded the death knell: “Banking secrecy is set to die,” he said after Austria and Luxembourg finally acquiesced to demands and agreed to automatic exchange of savings account information on non-citizens.

And so the diminished privacy that has become a feature of our modern lives now looks set to pervade the conventional banking system.

Citizens will render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, but the wisest among them will continue to avail of the privacy and asset protection offered in certain jurisdictions.

While financial privacy within the conventional banking system doesn’t exist anymore, you can still achieve a great degree of privacy for your wealth by holding it in alternative assets like physical precious metals, real estate, collectibles etc.

And as far as banking goes, the least you can do for your monetary assets is to entrust them into the custody of a sound institution with solid fundamentals that won’t gamble away with your deposits.

Establishing a banking relationship in a safe bank abroad is something that anyone can and should do. This is not about hiding anything. As we can see, financial nudity is now the norm anyways. The main reason to do so is to protect your savings from shaky institutions and bankrupt governments.

If death and taxes are certainties, the prescription is simple: report and fully comply with your domestic tax codes and then chose a very private jurisdiction that will protect your tax-compliant assets from the risks that overleveraged big financial institutions subject their clients to.

Credit to Zero Hedge

G7 'to intensify Russia sanctions'

The G7 group of economic powers has agreed to intensify sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

A G7 statement gave no detail of the sanctions, but US officials said they could announce measures by Monday.

The West accuses Russia of leading a secession rebellion in Ukraine's east, months after it annexed Crimea. Moscow denies the allegations.

Meanwhile, negotiators are trying to secure the release of international observers seized by pro-Russia gunmen.

Forces in the city of Sloviansk are still holding the eight European military observers and several Ukrainian army personnel who they seized on Friday and accuse of espionage.
Pro-Russian armed men have seized a number of government buildings in eastern Ukraine
Ukraine says its soldiers have now erected checkpoints around the eastern city of Sloviansk

The observers were taking part in a mission linked to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Jets 'violated air space'

Rebel militia continue to occupy official buildings in a dozen eastern cities, defying the government in Kiev.

Russia has tens of thousands of troops deployed along its side of the border with Ukraine and has said it would act if its interests were threatened.

The US accused Russian jets of violating Ukraine's airspace on Friday in a further sign of escalation.

Pentagon spokesman Col Steven Warren said Russian aircraft had entered Ukrainian airspace several times in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the G7 praised Ukraine for acting with restraint in dealing with the "armed bands" that had occupied government buildings.

But the group, which includes the US, UK, Germany, Japan, France, Canada and Italy, condemned Russia's "increasingly concerning rhetoric and ongoing threatening military manoeuvres".

"Given the urgency of securing the opportunity for a successful and peaceful democratic vote next month in Ukraine's presidential elections, we have committed to act urgently to intensify targeted sanctions and measures to increase the costs of Russia's actions," said the statement.

The US and EU already has assets freezes and travel bans in place target a number of Russian individuals and firms accused of playing a part in the annexation of Crimea.

Credit to BBC

Putin Halts All Talks With White House

As new U.S. sanctions against Russia loom, the Kremlin has shut down—at least for now—intensive high level communications between top U.S. and Russian officials.

Since the invasion of Crimea, President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama have had regular phone calls in an often half-hearted attempt to deescalate the ongoing crisis inside Ukraine. But as the U.S. and EU prepare to unveil new sanctions against Russia, Putin has decided the interactions should stop. The Kremlin has ended high-level contact with the Obama administration, according to diplomatic officials and sources close to the Russian leadership. The move signals an end to the diplomacy, for now.

“Putin will not talk to Obama under pressure,” said Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Institute for Contemporary Development, a prominent Moscow think tank, and a close associate of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. “It does not mean forever.”

Obama and Putin last spoke over the phone on April 14, a call that the White House said was initiated at Moscow’s request. Obama urged Putin in the call to end Kremlin support for armed, pro-Russian activists creating unrest in eastern Ukraine. Obama also warned that the U.S. would impose more “costs” on Russia if Putin continued his current course. According to the Kremlin’s readout of the call, Putin denied Russian interference in eastern Ukraine and said “that such speculations are based on inaccurate information.”

Obama and Putin have spoken to each other about Ukraine regularly over the past weeks, including calls on March 28, March 16, and March 6. But that these calls are now on hold for the indefinite future, due to their lack of progress and frustration on both sides.

On Friday, Kerry warned that new round of American financial assaults on Russia were on the way. “We are putting in more sanctions, they will probably come Monday at the latest,” he said in a private meeting in Washington, according to an attendee. Russian businesses and individuals close to Putin would be on the sanctions list, he added.

Diplomatic sources close to the process confirmed that Putin is not interested in speaking with Obama again in the current environment. The two leaders might talk again in the future but neither side is reaching out for direct interaction, as they had been doing since the Ukraine crisis began. The failure of the agreement struck last week in Geneva between the contact group of the U.S., EU, Russia, and Ukraine has made further direct Washington-Moscow interactions moot.

“‘We are putting in more sanctions, they will probably come Monday at the latest,’ Kerry said. Russian businesses and individuals close to Putin would be on the sanctions list, he added.”

Other top U.S. officials are also now out of direct contact with their Russian interlocutors. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is also getting the cold shoulder from his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu. Pentagon officials have reached out to Russia on Mr. Hagel’s behalf within the past 24 hours but have not gotten any response, according to Pentagon Spokesman Army Col. Steve Warren.

That leaves the channel between Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as the only semi-functioning high-level diplomatic channel between Washington and Moscow. But even that often-frosty relationship has further chilled as the two sides hurled insults and accusations this week.

After speaking over the phone Monday and then again Tuesday about the now defunct Geneva agreement on Ukraine, Kerry and Lavrov are now conducting diplomacy through the press—and leveling harsh and undiplomatic charges against one another.

Kerry appeared at the State Department press room Thursday afternoon to declare publicly that Russia was not keeping its word.

“For seven days, Russia has refused to take a single concrete step in the right direction,” Kerry scolded. “Not a single Russian official, not one, has publicly gone on television in Ukraine and called on the separatists to support the Geneva agreement, to support the stand-down, to give up their weapons, and get out of the Ukrainian buildings. They have not called on them to engage in that activity. “

Kerry also lashed out at Russia Today, the Kremlin-sponsored television network, which Kerry said spends all its time “to propagandize and to distort what is happening or not happening in Ukraine.” 

“Instead, in plain sight, Russia continues to fund, coordinate, and fuel a heavily armed separatist movement in Donetsk,” Kerry accused.

Lavrov publicly responded, “The U.S. is trying to pervert everything that is going on in Ukraine.”

On Friday, Kerry summed up his recent interactions with his Russian counterpart,  “I’ve had 6 conversations with Lavrov in the last few weeks. The last one was Kafka-esque... It was bizarre.”

Credit to The DeadlyBeast.com

Celente: No end in sight to Ukrainian crisis

Is Someone Betting Furiously That The Chinese Currency Collapses By The End Of 2014?

Last week, USDCNY began to accelerate lower and break across the "real pain" threshold that we have been discussing for many of the world's so-called "hedgers" who have been riding the one-way strengthening trend of the CNY for years and piled in with leveraged trades on what had been a one-way bet. 

The collapse this week, to levels not seen since pre-BoJ QQE and pre-Fed QE3 appeared to trigger an avalanche of unwinds or hedges of the exposures we have been worrying about. As the chart below shows, billions of dollars of upside calls on USDCNY were purchased on Friday with serious size out to 6.65 strikes (levels not seen since 2009) by the end of 2014.

The losses are mounting, as we explained in great detail here...

Simply put, if the CNY keeps going (whether by PBOC hand or a break of the virtuous cycle above), then things get ugly fast...

How Much Is at Stake?
In their previous note, MS estimated that US$350 billion of TRF have been sold since the beginning of 2013. When we dig deeper, we think it is reasonable to assume that most of what was sold in 2013 has been knocked out (at the lower knock-outs), given the price action seen in 2013.

Given that, and given what business we’ve done in 2014 calendar year to date, we think a reasonable estimate is that US$150 billion of product remains.

Taking that as a base case, we can then estimate the size of potential losses to holders of these products if USD/CNH keeps trading higher.

In round numbers, we estimate that for every 0.1 move in USD/CNH above the average EKI (which we have assumed here is 6.20), corporates will lose US$200 million a month. The real pain comes if USD/CNH stays above this level, as these losses will accrue every month until the contract expires. Given contracts are 24 months in tenor, this implies around US$4.8 billion in total losses for every 0.1 above the average EKI.

And clearly the hedging of those losses is underway en masse... (the size of the circles is the notinal being hedged - we have highlighted a few for context) as it is clear, hedgers are concerned that CNY would weaken to 6.65 or beyond by the end of the year

(h/t @moved_average )

The escalation of the unwind in recent days suggests the vicious circle is beginning.

Finally, putting aside speculative trader P&L losses, many of which are said to be of Japanese origin and thus will hardly enjoy much or any PBOC sympathies, here is CLSA's Russel Napier on what the long-tern fate of the Renminbi will be:

“Mercantilist alchemy transmutes China’s external surpluses into foreign exchange reserves and renminbi. But with capital outflows from China at record highs, those surpluses are only maintained due to its citizens’ foreign-currency borrowing. Bank-reserve and M2 growth are already near historical lows and are driving tighter monetary policy. This will lead to severe credit-quality issues and force the authorities to accept a credit crunch or opt for a major devaluation of the renminbi. They will do the latter; and despite five years of QE, the world will get deflation anyway.”

Zero Hedge

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts-U.S. Gold Gone