Quantcast
PC World: Technology Advice You Can Trust
Find a Review
Free Newsletters
Receive the latest reviews, how-to's, news, and more.
Security & Privacy
Weekly Brief
Windows Vista
WiFi Finder
Locate wireless services by a specific address, city, state, country, airport, or zip code.
RSS Feeds
Get our latest content via convenient RSS feeds.
Latest News
Today @ PC World
Become a PCW Member
Join the community and start enjoying the benefits:
  • Get tech advice from thousands of PC World Members
  • Rate and recommend the latest tech products
  • Share your thoughts in blog and article comments
  • Get free excerpts and exclusive discounts on Super Guides
Read More About: Cell PhonesHackers

Hackers Post Paris Hilton's Address Book Online

Celebrities listed in her cell race to change phone numbers.

Paul Roberts, IDG News Service

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 1:00 PM PST
Recommend this story?

Hackers have posted the cellular-phone address book of hotel heiress and celebrity Paris Hilton on a Web page and passed the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of some of Tinseltown's hottest stars into the public realm.

A copy of Hilton's T-Mobile USA cell-phone address book appeared Saturday on the Web site of a group calling itself "illmob." The address book contains information on over 500 of Hilton's acquaintances, including super celebrities such as Eminem and Christina Aguilera. It is not known how the information was obtained, but the release of the address book may be further fallout from a hack of T-Mobile's servers that came to light in January.

The Hilton address book was posted on the illmob Web site early Sunday and is a simple HTML table listing the phone numbers and e-mail addresses for acquaintances, along with other useful information, such as the number of the San Francisco Hilton Hotel and celebrity attorney Robert Shapiro. Attempts to read the list today resulted in a "Page Not Found" error message, however; a blog on the site said the traffic to illmob.org was much heavier than normal.

The leak is bound to prompt a furious round of unplanned number changes among Hilton's coterie, after fans and curious Web surfers learned of the hack and began dialing their favorite celebrities.

Eminem's phone number was changed. Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst's voice mailbox was full. Tennis star Anna Kournikova's number was busy, despite repeated attempts to get through. Robert Shapiro's answering machine picked up when called and provided a number to page the star attorney in an emergency.

There was no answer at Hilton's home, nor did sister Nicky Hilton answer calls to her phone.

Not for Long

Reached by phone, actor Kevin Connelly of the cable television show Entourage said he had received between 200 and 300 phone calls since early Sunday, as word of the hacked address book spread across the Internet. Connelly plays opposite Adrian Grenier in the HBO show about a young celebrity and his colorful entourage of old school chums. He declined to comment on whether he knew Hilton or why his name appeared in her T-mobile phone list.

Connelly, who received at least one other call while on the line with this reporter, said he would likely change his phone number to stop the harassment.

It was unclear Sunday how the cell phone contact list was obtained. However, Hilton's was one of a number of celebrity cell phones that was reportedly compromised in an attack on T-Mobile's network that netted information on 400 of the company's customers, including sensitive information from the account of a U.S. Secret Service agent.

In January, the Bellevue, Washington, mobile carrier acknowledged that Nicholas Jacobsen, a California-based hacker, compromised its internal computer systems in 2003 and viewed the Social Security numbers of 400 customers. T-Mobile, which is part of Deutsche Telekom, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Jacobsen pleaded guilty on February 15 to one felony charge of accessing a protected computer and causing reckless damage. He is scheduled to be sentenced in May and faces a maximum possible sentence of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.


Recommend this story?
HP Ink Center
Bring improved color and brilliance to your printed material. Visit the Resource Center for more info...
CDW Solution Center
Deliver speed and scalability in your storage systems. Find out how at the CDW Solution Center.
Asus Notebook Center
Ultra-fashionable thin and light notebooks with SmartLogon Face Recognition. Find out more at the Asus Resource Center.
Intel Processor Technology
Which Intel Processor is Right for You?Centrino, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Extreme? Check out the Intel Technology Center for more info...
Are you a gamer?Visit the Intel's Gaming section for the latest downloads, hottest gaming events and to learn about Intel & Gaming.
See what Intel can do for Vista...Discover how Windows Vista technology work in the benchmarks with Intel Centrino processor technology.
VoIP Web Demo
Join Altigen for a Live Web Demo and learn how VoIP technology can improve your business communications.
The Future Sales Force - A Consultative Approach
This white paper discusses the challenges of selling complex products and services, and the new skill sets sales professionals must employ.
Latest News
Sony has promoted a senior executive at its U.S. games studio to lead its global studios, it said Friday. 15-May-2008
Fujitsu has developed a prototype electronic paper screen that tackles one of the technology's biggest weaknesses: the amount... 15-May-2008
The One Laptop Per Child Project and Microsoft plan to make both Windows and Linux available on a version of the project's XO... 15-May-2008
Yahoo has responded to investor Carl Icahn's threat to take control of Yahoo's board and force it back to the negotiating... 15-May-2008
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn's proxy fight for Yahoo is aimed at reigniting merger talks between the Internet company and... 15-May-2008
When Apple ships its iPhone 2.0 update--and the accompanying App Store for distributing third-party software for the... 15-May-2008
Amit Singh thought something was missing from OS X. The Google engineer--and author of Mac OS X Internals--took a look at what... 15-May-2008
This week our readers engage on a wide range of topics, from software piracy to capitalism. 15-May-2008
Merger and acquisition news this week from Hewlett-Packard, EDS, Comcast, Plaxo, CBS and CNET -- along with Carl Icahn's... 15-May-2008
The industry momentum for data portability brotherhood hit a bump on Thursday when Facebook blocked Google's Friend Connect... 15-May-2008

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

Name City
Address 1 State Zip
Address 2 E-mail (optional)