Paris Hilton Falls Victim to Hackers (moved from ATSNN), page 1

A hacker broke into celebrity heiress Paris Hilton's T-Mobile cellphone records, stealing her contact list, messages and notes. The stolen private data was posted across the Internet causing her top-notch friends and acquaintances to scramble to obtain new phone numbers. The information was likely stolen by someone who was able to break into her account on T-Mobile's website. The theft is being investigated.

www.newyorkpost.com
February 22, 2005 -- An Internet rogue apparently hacked into T-Mobile's heavily used Web site to access Paris Hilton's cellphone data, enabling the thief to splash the heiress's racy phone snaps, celebrity numbers and notes-to-self across cyberspace, experts said yesterday.

The 'Net stealer likely logged on to the site and either garnered Hilton's password or bypassed that security feature altogether to gain access to data from her Sidekick II personal digital-assistance device, they said.

"I think the hacker just decided to pick her as a test case," said Kevin Poulsen, news editor of SecurityFocus, an online site specializing in computer security and technology.

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When this happens to celebrities like Paris Hilton it makes news, but one must wonder how many times incidents like this occurs to normal people who end up becoming victims of espionage or identity theft. Companies that deal with personal information must put security first and do more to protect our private data.