AT&T’s cellular network is vulnerable to malicious hackers that ultimately hijack your data, along with 47 other cell phone carriers, allowing the hijacker to intercept information such as calls, text messages, and cellular data as discovered by some researchers from the University of Michigan. The vulnerability affects all AT&T smartphones, tablets, and computers using cellular connect cards, including Android devices and the iPhone. The vulnerability is a problem because once the data is intercepted, a malicious hacker can inject malicious data into the traffic passing between devices and ultimately leaves the user unknowingly affected.
This kind of hijacking gives the malicious hacker the ability to redirect phone users to duplicitous Web sites, which attempt to mimic those of legitimate ones to steal user login credentials and scam people out of their money. According to Ars Tecnhica, the vulnerability is caused by a firewall system that AT&T (and other carriers) implemented to attempt to keep hackers out of the cellular data. That being said, the security measure is ironically the cellular carrier’s Achilles’ heel:
Originally Posted by Ars Technica
The hijacking vulnerability is just another reason why users should not rely on an open, public network to do their banking, personal Facebooking, and other things that can cause detrimental damage to a person. Cellular networks are as public as unsecured Wi-Fi networks. Banking and Facebooking should be saved for your personal computer on wired or secured Wi-Fi networks such as that in your home as this will be a way of guarding yourself from this cellular hijacking.
Sources: Ars Technica via Cult of Mac
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