What is Phone Hacking?

Phone hacking
One of the biggest stories this summer has been the phone hacking scandal. It has been exposed that the News of the World and others have been hacking into the voicemails of celebrities, government officials, criminal suspects and military personnel gain more information and get an advantage over competing newspapers on the big stories going on at the time. There have also been allegations that police officers and other officials have collaborated with reporters in return for bribes.

Phone Hacking is when an individual gains access to someone else's voicemail without their knowledge and listens to that person's messages. All modern mobile phones come with a default 4 digit Pin to access their voicemail and phone companies expect the owners to change the Pin but many people don't. This made it relatively easy for the journalists to get access as they would simply phone a number, see if the owner picked up, if not they would then wait for the voicemail message then press either the star or hash keys, enter the default Pin and they would then have access to all of the owners messages. Most of the default Pins are available on the internet and even if the Pins have been changed the suggested alternatives such as birthdays are also easy to acquire.


The newspaper industry is very competitive and so any advantage that a company can get over its rivals is greatly prized. This means that reporters and editors are willing to take large risks in order to get more information on a story than other papers. This system is not helped by the public who will spend more money, more frequently to get more information on the big stories which in turn encourages the newspapers to take these risks in order to make a larger profit. One of the main culprits exposed over the summer was News of the World who were best known for exposing celebrities and public figures secrets by hiring private investigators to get evidence that could be published that weekend. Phone hacking became a popular method of getting evidence in the newspaper industry as reporters could get highly sensitive information whilst sitting at their desks or even at home. 

News of the World was first suspected of phone hacking in 2005 when reporters Mulclaire and Goodman were jailed for hacking into the voicemail of Prince William. Since then there have been other allegations by competing newspapers such as The Guardian who accused the NoW of hacking approximately 3,000 other phones. Since these allegations came to light the newspaper industry has seen major effects, celebrities are now even more weary about who they talk to and what they talk about while on the phone. Also as not only celebrities were hacked but families of deceased military personnel and victims of crime sales of Rupert Murdoch's papers fell drastically, with The Sun reportedly having lost 250,000 readers and The Times 30,000.  


Since the the start of the investigation police have discovered that NoW hacked approximately 4,000 phones in total some of the victims of the NoW phone hacking were Sienna Miller, Elle Macpherson, Hugh Grant, Boris Johnson, Andy Gray and Steve Coogan. Families of the July 7th bombing victims were also hacked, it has come to light from the inquiry that this took place in the same week as the attack.

At the centre of the inquiry is News Corp, as Rupert Murdoch the CEO, also owns the NoW as well as many other papers, television channels and radio stations. Much of the attention has been aimed at Murdoch as to how the phone hacking was able to go on in his company and without him knowing. This has had an effect on News Corp's reputation as a global company. Murdoch has been under some pressure from the UK government for more cooperation in the inquiry and if more evidence were to arise his already damaged reputation would take another destructive blow. 

Andy Coulson was an editor with the NoW until 2007 and is one of the main suspects in the phone hacking investigation. In 2010 the New York Times published an article in which it stated that "Andy hired the investigators himself" Andy quickly denied this and other claims. More evidence has been brought forth that implicates him further, where Channel 4 Dispatches made an allegation that Coulson actually listened to some of the hacked voicemails himself. He was arrested on the 8th July and bailed but to stand in trial with Brooks in October. Rebekah Brooks is another former editor for the NoW who resigned following pressure from politicians on the 15th of July. Murdoch stood by his 22 year long employee during the investigation and when the former editor admitted that she knew about the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone.