Egypt Hacked Vodafone To Send Pro-Regime Texts

[highplainsdem]

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/egypt-hacked-vodafone-to-send-pro-regime-texts/

One of the largest mobile providers operating in Egypt says the regime of Hosni Mubarak sent unattributed pro-regime text messages out over its network. And it’s not happy about the hack.

In a statement, Vodafone confirms that “since the start of the protests,” the regime has used emergency authorities to send “messages to the people of Egypt.” Rival providers Mobinil and Etisalat are subject to the same authority. None of the messages are “scripted by any of the mobile network operators and we do not have the ability to respond to the authorities on their content.”

People in Egypt have been surprised to receive unsolicited texts expressing support for the regime. Mubarak’s government shut down Internet and cellular communications between Friday and Wednesday in an unsuccessful attempt to stop mass demonstrations calling for Mubarak’s resignation. But it evidently had a strategy to send disinformation and confusion straight to demonstrators’ phones.

“Vodafone Group has protested to the authorities that the current situation regarding these messages is unacceptable,” the company says. “We have made clear that all messages should be transparent and clearly attributable to the originator.”

-snip-

[myrna minx]

1. Whoa - talk about catapulting the propaganda. n/t