Cell Phone Hacking, Tracking and Monitoring the History, Legislation, Types and Potential Misuses

CELL PHONE HACKING, TRACKING AND MONITORING THE HISTORY, LEGISLATION, TYPES AND POTENTIAL MISUSES

by

Timothy P. Culkin

A Final Project Submitted to the Faculty of

Utica College

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

Master of Science Economic Crime Management in Business and Justice

© Copyright 2016 by Timothy P. Culkin

All Rights Reserved

Abstract

Cell Phone Tracking, Monitoring, and Hacking and has had an effect on the United States since the begging of the cell phone industry in the 1970’s. What started out as an annoyance to those privilege few who owned mobile phones in the 1970’s through the 1980’s became a security and privacy concern with the increased use of cell phones for both business use and personal use in the mid-1990’s. The first attempt to protect cell phone users privacy was in 1994 when the FCC implemented a regulation making it illegal to produce any scanners capable receiving cell phone signals as well as importing any scanners that could do this, intercepting scrambled communications, modifying radio scanners, using information for personal gain, and using the information to commit a crime (ebay, 2014). This did nothing to prevent the resale of scanners. Soon the cell phone industry changed digital cell phones provided some security features that were lacking in the Analog phones. Technology has advanced cell phones to the point where they are no longer solely a telephonic communication tool. They are mobile computers that now contain the computing power of the most powerful computers that were on the market from just a few years ago. Individuals now use cell phones to conduct business, to conduct financial transactions, and to communicate through video, email, and text messages. Owners believe that the information stored on their devices is secure and protected from hacking, illegal monitoring and governmental intrusion of their private information...