Improve Cell Phone Security
Cell phones have improved dramatically in their security since their inception. Modern phones use digital conversion rather than analog, which makes eavesdropping more difficult than in the past. Further, many of today's cellular networks are using a technology called "spread spectrum" which rapidly spreads a phone call among multiple different frequencies per second. Unfortunately, hackers and electronics experts are still able to build receiving equipment that can decode cellular conversations, which places the burden of security onto the user, rather than technological innovation.
Instructions
1. Review your billing statement and associated call list monthly when you have received it, doing so carefully to pinpoint whether anyone else has been placing cellular calls on your account. Access to your account can occur through a hacking method called "phone cloning," in which someone uses a specialized receiver to intercept your phone's information as it is polling cellular towers.
2. Resist the natural urge to make telephone purchases in which you are required to provide your credit card information over your cell phone during the purchase call. Hackers do have the ability to listen in to cellular calls with specially modified scanners. It is your responsibility to always assume that someone is listening to your cellular call, and knowledge of this should be sufficient cause for you to be cautious in what you say over your phone.
3. Turn off your cell phone and remove the battery if you plan to attend sensitive business meetings in order to prevent corporate espionage. The 911 GPS location software in all modern cell phones has the ability to send your exact location throughout the cellular network. Some cellular phones can be used by hackers to eavesdrop, even when the power is turned off at the power switch. As long as the battery is installed in any cellular phone, it can be remotely powered for the purpose of eavesdropping to steal corporate secrets. It is for this reason that many government agencies forbid cellular phones to be carried into sensitive areas.
4. Use additional voice encryption with your cellular phone. There are several possible voice encryption technologies, such as TrustChip, CellCrypt, and SecurStar, to name just a few. When added to your phone and also to the phones of those with whom you communicate, this added encryption forms a robust security layer which makes eavesdropping extremely difficult, if not outright impossible.
5. Destroy your old cell phone rather than selling it to another party. Regardless as to how diligently you have attempted to delete your private information, it is never truly gone and may be recovered from any cell phone using specialized, yet inexpensive, software downloaded over the Internet (see the References section).
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