Greek .gov spying case uncovers first phone switch rootkit
A highly sophisticated spying operation that tapped into the mobile phones of Greece's prime minister and other top government officials has highlighted weaknesses in telecommunications systems that still use decades-old computer code, according to a report by two computer scientists.
The spying case, in which the calls of around 100 people were secretly tapped, remains unsolved and is still being investigated. Also complicating the case is the questionable suicide in March 2005 of a top engineer at Vodafone Group PLC in Greece who was in charge of network planning.
A look into how the hack occurred revealed an operation of breathtaking depth and success, according to an analysis on IEEE Spectrum Online, the Web site of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
