Wireless Devices a Security Threat Overseas

WASHINGTON - Sources in the intelligence community have expressed concern that when traveling to some foreign countries with wireless communications devices, it's possible your email may be read, your address book may be downloaded and your phone calls may be monitored, WTOP has learned.

This is because when you fly overseas and turn your wireless phone back on after the flight, it's no longer operating on your company's network -- it's linked to a foreign network.

Government hackers can open your address book and download all the information. They can also listen to your phone calls. And according to U.S. intelligence sources, one country has been known to try to infect wireless devices with viruses.

When you get back to the U.S. and plug back into your company's network, the intelligence agencies of those countries may have access to your company's network.

People traveling to China are especially at risk. Possible unauthorized access to your company's phone, or computer while you're in China is just a small part of the threat the U.S faces from the Chinese. Military analyst Dan Goure says "commercial espionage and military espionage" are two of the three main fronts in China's Cyber war with the U.S.

The biggest issue is the Chinese government "trying to understand," penetrate and alter U.S. business and military systems and "maybe even put in so called Trojans and other devices into the software," Goure says.

If your business trips include travel to China to other countries hostile to the U.S., experts recommend you leave your company or government-issued electronics at home and take a surrogate device that will never be plugged into your company's or agency's systems once you return.

Parent company of BlackBerry, Research in Motion, says the BlackBerry Smartphone Solution includes built-in protection against unauthorized access and eavesdropping regardless of where you are in the world.

A spokesman says BlackBerries are equipped with technology to prevent unauthorized access to your device via communications networks in foreign countries.

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP Radio. All Rights Reserved.)