Got a call this morning from "Unknown, Unknown" on my iPhone 11. Normally I ignore such attempts at diverting my attention, but my wife being curious, took the call. After a few minutes haggling with the guy over his purpose for calling she whispered in my ear that she couldnt hang up!
I actually couldnt comprehend what she was talking about and gently taking the phone from her hand, I noticed the ordinarily red button that ends a call was green. She said it wasnt functional to end the call. I pressed it myself - no response. I immediately powered down the phone and left it that way for a few hours.
So, the "hackers" can now jump around - Blank - the display of the phone number they're calling from and the ID associated with that number.
They - apparently - can also take control of the basic functionality of the phone. If we werent dreaming, that is.
This is a new low in desperation IMHO. An attack on the basic sovereignty of the phone owner. Makes me wonder what other compute based devices can be infiltrated in such a way? I assume anything "connected"...
I know the European Parliament has the "Right to Repair" initiative. Hopefully, they'll start one called "Right to User Sovereignty". (That's not going to be a USA initiative)
Similarly - I feel - A fellow musician I was visiting remarked how he had Icons arranged across the screen of his W11 system, turned the laptop on one morning - all gone. He couldnt bring them back. I copied a directory to the "Desktop" in file explorer, the directory didnt show up there. At that point, I couldnt solve the problem for him, something fundamental got changed.
So it looks like others can just go into these devices and do whatever they want, perhaps limited for the time being. Where's User Sovereignty? Will we ever have it? Would you ever buy something without it? Will there be no choice?
I actually couldnt comprehend what she was talking about and gently taking the phone from her hand, I noticed the ordinarily red button that ends a call was green. She said it wasnt functional to end the call. I pressed it myself - no response. I immediately powered down the phone and left it that way for a few hours.
So, the "hackers" can now jump around - Blank - the display of the phone number they're calling from and the ID associated with that number.
They - apparently - can also take control of the basic functionality of the phone. If we werent dreaming, that is.
This is a new low in desperation IMHO. An attack on the basic sovereignty of the phone owner. Makes me wonder what other compute based devices can be infiltrated in such a way? I assume anything "connected"...
I know the European Parliament has the "Right to Repair" initiative. Hopefully, they'll start one called "Right to User Sovereignty". (That's not going to be a USA initiative)
Similarly - I feel - A fellow musician I was visiting remarked how he had Icons arranged across the screen of his W11 system, turned the laptop on one morning - all gone. He couldnt bring them back. I copied a directory to the "Desktop" in file explorer, the directory didnt show up there. At that point, I couldnt solve the problem for him, something fundamental got changed.
So it looks like others can just go into these devices and do whatever they want, perhaps limited for the time being. Where's User Sovereignty? Will we ever have it? Would you ever buy something without it? Will there be no choice?
Where I live (California USA), a telemarketer is legally forbidden from starting their sales pitch, until they verify that another person is on the line. Which means: until they hear the word Hello or some other correctly pronounced word in a recognizable language.
However, I have discovered through dozens of experiments, that if I answer the phone with a Tim Allen baboon grunt, or two, the telemarketer almost always becomes flummoxed and befuddled. It's not Hello and it's not in their preplanned script; they don't know what to do. After about 30 or 45 seconds of silence, the line goes dead.
Oh yeah, and I only do this on my "landline" phone -- the one that allows our fire alarm to dial 911 when it senses smoke or flames. Never answer a call from an unknown number on a mobile phone, especially near an election. If it's an important matter they'll leave voicemail.
However, I have discovered through dozens of experiments, that if I answer the phone with a Tim Allen baboon grunt, or two, the telemarketer almost always becomes flummoxed and befuddled. It's not Hello and it's not in their preplanned script; they don't know what to do. After about 30 or 45 seconds of silence, the line goes dead.
Oh yeah, and I only do this on my "landline" phone -- the one that allows our fire alarm to dial 911 when it senses smoke or flames. Never answer a call from an unknown number on a mobile phone, especially near an election. If it's an important matter they'll leave voicemail.
Exactly. If I don't recognize the number, I don't answer. I quite often get voicemails that are just dead air. 🙂
jeff
I recorded the three tones and message you hear when reaching a disconnected phone. Beep Beep Beep, "the number you dialed is out of service or has been disconnected ...". I used it as the first few seconds of my recorded greeting a few years ago. My friends thought it was funny. It cut down the bad calls in a a couple.
Makes you want to send a virus back over the line that causes an uncontrolled 30,000 amp fault in their main breaker panel, or the centrifuges to spin up to 90,000 RPM, or anything equally destructive. As long as it takes out every single integrated circuit in the facility…..