SMS Texters as cell phones hackers?



Researchers at Pennsylvania State University say that by pushing 165 messages a second into the cellphone network, you can congest all of Manhattan. Malicious hackers could take down cellular networks in large cities by inundating their popular text-messaging services with the equivalent of spam.



It is possible because cell phone companies provide the text-messaging service to their networks in a way that could allow an attacker who jams the message system to disable the voice network as well. And because the message services are accessible through the Internet, cellular networks are open to the denial-of-service attacks that occur regularly online, in which computers send so many messages or commands to a target that the rogue data blocks other machines from connecting.





via: nytimes.com