You know me, I don't like to complain

Schneier on Security: Cell Phone Stalking:

Me:
So far we have the mobile operator saying what they’re describing is impossible, which as far as I know, it is. Then you have non-technical people explaining the situation and the behavior to an equally non-technical group of reporters and local law enforcement.

Take a deep breath, folks.

The story about That Family in Washington that has a stalker/miscreant hassling them with abuse and threats of bodily harm? I think it’s totally BS. But there has been some really interesting discussion about it on Schneier’s weblog, and so I hope that this conversation goes on for a little bit longer mainly so someone can demonstrate that I’m wrong. The problem is that most mobile malware is bogus/vaporware/alarmist tripe.

So until it breaks out of “a friend of mine knows this guy that read a blog about a google search that turned up a .JAR file that rooted his Samsung,” I’m going to call shenanigans. Part of the problem, in my mind, is that the reporters aren’t necessarily experts in such things, and so they rely, of course, on what equally unsophisticated users are telling them.

So yeah, there are some things that are technically possible, but remember what they say about the most likely explanation…