BT suspends SMS trials over data protection
February 7, 2006
British Telecom is to suspend trials of its new SMS system - after users were able to look up sensitive information on other telephone numbers.
Short Message Service (SMS) allows users to send short text data between mobile phones, IP addresses, and fax machines.
The BT SMS Self Service was supposed to allow users to find out more information about their service with BT - such as when the last bill was paid, if there were known faults on the line, etc.
However, users found they could access this data for phone numbers other than their own.
It was enough to cause BT to suspend the trials, and the the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has asked for safeguards to ensure data is more securely protected.
While the flaws in this system were more easily noticed, as information systems become more and more mobile, the opportunities for intercepting sensitive data from them can only increase.