Voicemail spying shows phone network weak spots  — The voicemail
tampering scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's News of the World
tabloid demonstrates not only the vulnerability of phone
networks, but also the fallibility of the people who help
maintain them.  The British tabloid is accused of breaking into
voicemail accounts of various celebrities and dignitaries -and
even crime victims and their families- in a relentless hunt for
scoops.  Those accused of hacking on behalf of Murdoch's
publication were alleged to have employed a variety of ruses.
Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the center of the
phone hacking scandal, once targeted members of Britain's royal
household by duping phone operators into handing over their
personal codes. Those PIN codes in turn allowed him and tabloid
journalist Clive Goodman to listen in on the royal family's
voicemails.  Many of the methods that phone hackers use are
surprisingly low-tech.  "Pretexting" is a common technique for
fooling company representatives into g