AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network • Hacker News Board

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#151

Post by ijpoijpoihpiuoh » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 12:03 PM UTC

kaibee wrote: post #118

sokoloff wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, since the enaction of this: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/517

Technically yes, but in my experience... no. Recently my parents switched carriers for whatever reason, so I had to get a new phone. Honestly I would have kept my Note4 for another year, but whatever. Being a phone from, what 2014? it was well paid off at this point. 1. I went to the AT&T Store, asked them to unlock my phone. Was told, no sorry, we don't do that here. "Call the support line." 2. Called the support li…

I never had any trouble unlocking any of the iPhones my family purchased from AT&T.

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#152

Post by PhasmaFelis » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

DaniloDias wrote: post #125

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article makes it sound like this particular guy was just charging consumers to unlock their personal phones so they could use them on different networks.

yeah- that is what the article says. I’ve been involved in these kinds of events in the past. The carriers go after anyone facilitating device unlocks extremely aggressively because there is a huge supply chain problem. Consequently, just because the article says things, I’m pretty wary of trusting them to be correct.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. It sounds like you agree with the article that carriers go hard after anyone who helps unlock phones, but disagree on...what?

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#153

Post by _bxg1 » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 3:41 PM UTC

throwfDfZ9yPK wrote: post #149

_bxg1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I mean, you can literally ask AT&T and they'll unlock your phone. Or if this was before that was possible, you could still just root it yourself. I don't see why the network or its employees had to be involved at all.

NO! Rooting your phone will not result in a carrier unlock. I am not aware of the specific technical details, but there are mechanisms in place which RMS would call "Negative in the freedom dimension." In my case I followed your advice, thinking like a logical human, that rooting my phone could allow myself to unlock my device (which I paid retail price from their walled garden market for pre-locked devicess, no subs…

Rooting alone doesn't accomplish anything, but once rooted you can do anything to your phone, including carrier-unlocking, blocking updates, or rewriting the whole operating system. The only thing a carrier could still do in theory is blacklist your device from connecting to their network, which I've never heard of anyone doing.

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#154

Post by thatguy0900 » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

HenryBemis wrote: post #130

dmix wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Fahd allegedly recruited AT&T “insiders” to install malware programs that gathered confidential information and submitted unlock requests using employee credentials via a remote server. These were probably 3rd party call centers or section of the company that ran their customer service lines which gave agents the ability to unlock devices. The amount of spin this article is using to associate locking devices to kee…

I cannot see how would his be profitable. Usually when a customer receives a new cellphone at a lower price, that comes with a 12-24 month extension of a proportionally expensive contract. After said contract expires, AT&T has already made its profit. Even if someone would want to take the device and use another company's SIM card, they would still have to honour the contract with AT&T. The only "free money" scenario…

I used to work at a att store. You would be very surprised how often people open consumer or business accounts with new 4 new iPhones and just never make a payment on it. Just find someone willing to destroy their credit for 1000$ cash and sell the phones for 2000$

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#155

Post by benguild » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 6:33 PM UTC

I was always wondering who was on payroll at AT&T for this.

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#156

Post by qwerty456127 » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 7:34 PM UTC

Good. Locking phones should be fought and, ideally, outlawed.

Re: AT&T employees were bribed to install phone unlocking malware on company network

#157

Post by throwfDfZ9yPK » Thu, Aug 08, 2019, 1:10 AM UTC

_bxg1 wrote: post #153

throwfDfZ9yPK wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NO! Rooting your phone will not result in a carrier unlock. I am not aware of the specific technical details, but there are mechanisms in place which RMS would call "Negative in the freedom dimension." In my case I followed your advice, thinking like a logical human, that rooting my phone could allow myself to unlock my device (which I paid retail price from their walled garden market for pre-locked devicess, no subs…

Rooting alone doesn't accomplish anything, but once rooted you can do anything to your phone, including carrier-unlocking, blocking updates, or rewriting the whole operating system. The only thing a carrier could still do in theory is blacklist your device from connecting to their network, which I've never heard of anyone doing.

This is simply not the case.

The SIM lock methods are a little bit diferent from handset to handset, but flashing LineageOS will not unlock your handset. I know there are some handsets which the SIM Lock may be manipulated via block device, but you often have to issue dialer commands to the baseband firmware.