Many new words sneak into the English dictionary every year, but rarely does a technological craze make it into he hallowed oxford English press, but surely Bluejacking must be in the running for 2003/04, its the wireless equivalent to knock down ginger.

Bluejacking, that's not bluesnarfing or bluestumbling we'll cover those later utilises Bluetooth technology to deliver unsolicited messages to those with enabled devices, in its simplest form Bluejacking is pushing a contact record or other file to a mobile device using a Bluetooth connection. Now much has been written on the legality of Bluejacking, it is important to note that while use of Bluetooth to send messages to other mobile users is not Illegal depending on the message you send it could well get you in a spot of bother. The easiest rule to follow is to consider Bluejacking to be a very short email, do not send anything offensive or that contravenes local laws use some common sense if you send fun and inoffensive messages Bluejacking will raise a smile and some curious looks but not tempers.

So on to the main issue how to bluejack?

Bluejacking uses the class 1 Bluetooth connection now available on an increasing number of phones (not just those at the top end of the range) Bluetooth was conceived to enable devices to exchange data at up to 1mbit/s over relatively short distances (typically no more than 10 meters). Of course like the best or should that be worst protocols no one thought that the Bluetooth system would be used to push messages it was designed to link devices for data transfer for example Bluetooth headsets or synchronising email or contacts with a PC perhaps even linking your fridge and TV. So the security of Bluetooth was left to a pairing system, this attempts to ensure that only devices that have exchanged a password can immediately connect to each other and to be fair this works well.

However Bluejacking uses the start of the pairing process to deliver its payload, in order for a device to be paired it must be made "visible" this means any Bluetooth device can search for and find the device which is listed by its name and then attempt to pair, of course the pair will only be accepted if the other user agrees.

Bluejacking relies on the vast numbers of mobile phones that are shipped as "visible" from the factory, or the users who leave their phones set to visible for ease of use, instead of searching for a phone to pair with a bluejacker will search for phones within range and then send a contact from their phones memory which will appear as a message on the screen of the other mobile.

This unsolicited message looks to all intents like an SMS but the user is mystified as it does not have a phone number or indeed anyway of tracing its sender, messages tend to be quite limited as most mobiles will only display the first line of the contact on the screen, but that is normally room to come up with something amusing.

Time for the easy steps that show you how to bluejack.

1. Select your area carefully, you need an area with plenty of mobile users, stations and areas with business men and women are best but supermarkets and other places with large groups of people are also good.

2. You'll want to pre prepare a few contacts to send, fill in the first line and perhaps some of the other parameters like email, but most bluejack victims will only see the first line, it is possible to send photos too this can be great once you have identified a victim.

3. Scan for Bluetooth enabled phones, go into your phone's contacts select the card you have already made and select "send via Bluetooth" this will start a search for all Bluetooth devices within a 10 meter range.

4. You will see a list of the phone names in range, pay attention as these will often be the phone model name useful for identifying who you have bluejacked or at least amusing to find who has a phone named "sexy bum", quickly select one phone and send the contact, Bluetooth will take a while to deliver the contact so speed is important to get your victim before they move out of range.

5. Having sent the contact you should get the confirmation "card sent" and then listen for the SMS message tone of your victims phone. Success you've Bluejacked!

6. If you can identify who you managed to Bluejack then you can follow up with a specific message which will really freak out your victim, for example " hey that's a funky hat" or "what train are you catching" the best messages are often very humorous and should amuse your victim.

So that's Bluejacking, there are a few limited software applications which can run on Sony Ericsson phones such as SMAN (see the software section for a review).

Bluesnarfing and Bluestumbling are both more intrusive uses of Bluetooth technology, Bluesnarfing is the process of connecting to a mobile device and copying the contents without authorisation, this vulnerability is limited to a handful of Sony Ericsson and Nokia Phones. Bluetumbling is similar but the vulnerability can only be exploited by a device that was previously paired but has since been removed from the mobile device list, so not really anything to lose sleep over.

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