Features
Gigs & Bytes: We’ll Always Have Paris
Chances are, all your problems can be traced to one person – Paris Hilton.
Hilton’s T-Mobile Sidekick II account was recently hacked. What’s more, the hacker (or hackers), upon seeing the list of celeb phone numbers, along with the e-mail and snail mail addresses of those most likely to hang with the world’s most famous hotel heiress, did what hackers naturally do and distributed Hilton’s personal information.
Weighing in at 7 ounces, the $200 cell phone includes e-mail, text messaging, Web browser, organizer and camera. We suspect Hilton got it as a perk when appearing along with Snoop Dogg and Wayne Newton in T-Mobile’s Sidekick commercial where Snoop is on a text messaging quest for advice on when to put fabric softener into the washing machine. (The answer is the rinse cycle, by the way.)
Now the commercial about how cell phone technology brings us all together seems more than a wee bit ironic.
Who’s listed in Hilton’s personal contacts file? Christina Aguilera, for one. In fact, Aguilera’s phone number is near the top of the list, second only to someone Hilton can only remember as “? Cory?”
Other phone numbers and e-mail addys included in the list apparently belong to high-profile celebs such as Lindsay Lohan, Eminem, Nicole Richie and Fred Durst. Other people included in the Hilton’s personal file include legendary press agent Elliot Mintz and writer Stephen King. Then there’s the entry for someone with a Minneapolis area code who Hilton lists simply as “Party guy.” That’s kept more than a few Paris watchers guessing.
By now most of the people on the list have already changed their numbers and email addresses. As soon as the list was posted, self-styled Crank Yankers targeted one of Paris’ friends, Victoria Gotti, best-selling author, daughter of goodfella John and central character on a reality show.
“I got 100 calls in two hours,” Gotti said. “I didn’t want to take the phones off the hook because my oldest son was out on a date.”
Gotti finally disconnected her phone, but when she reconnected it a few hours later, the calls were still coming in.
“It’s driving me insane,” Gotti said.
Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas was not spared, either. She was reportedly on the set of the group’s new video shoot for “Don’t Funk With My Heart” when, at 6:30 a.m., she started receiving phone call after phone call.
It wouldn’t be a good Paris Hilton story if there weren’t pictures to go along with the text, right? And, oh, baby! Self pics of Hilton sans top, as well as a few snapshots of Hilton with a young lady who looks to be a very, very close friend.
But how did the evil-doers get their grubby little mitts on Hilton’s Sidekick? Actually, all they needed to do was hack into her Sidekick account. That’s because, like many online services such as Yahoo! and Excite, Sidekick keeps that information in private, online accounts.
In fact, various media reports have speculated that someone did just that, for it wasn’t too long ago when court documents revealed that someone had hacked their way into T-Mobile and accessed more than 400 customer accounts.
Meanwhile, the latest Paris caper has had T-Mobile scurrying to assure customers that their data is safe.
“T-Mobile’s computer forensics and security team is actively investigating to determine how Ms. Hilton’s information was obtained,” the company said in a statement. “This includes the possibility that someone had access to one of Ms. Hilton’s devices and/or knew her account password.”
Hilton, by the way, apologized to her friends with, “I feel horrible that, once again, somebody has invaded my privacy.” We think her friends concur.