Nokia 1100: Criminal's Most Sought After $32,000 Gadget

Old Nokia 1100 handsets that are manufactured in Germany are in high demand from criminal networks because of a software flaw that can apparently be exploited to intercept one-time passwords used to authorize online bank transactions.



Police contacted Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations six months ago, reporting that a Nokia 1100, originally sold for €100, had been sold for €5,000 - and asked what was leading to the high demand. About ten days ago, investigators saw one of the exploitable handsets fetch €25,000 ($32,000).

Over 200 million Nokia 1100 handsets were sold since it launched late 2003. I actually owned one before and lost it somewhere but never really knew where it was made. So for those who owned one, hold your horses. Only handsets manufactured in a particular factory in Bochum, Germany contain the vulnerable Nokia software.

Criminals have thousands of usernames and passwords for online banking accounts in countries including Germany and Holland. These countries also require a transaction authentication number (TAN) to complete any online transactions. The TAN codes were previously distributed to customers on paper, many codes at a time, however successful phishing attacks led to the codes being issued one at a time via SMS messages, according to Frank Engelsman from Ultrascan.

An informant from Ulstrascan claims that the vulnerable 1100 handsets can be reprogrammed to spoof a phone number, and intercept the SMS containing the TAN. Ultrascan has yet to obtain the particular model of phone to verify the attack.

Source: Techworld