Hijacked lines lead to international block

Sri Lanka Telecom is being forced to shut down direct dialled international telephony services because of malicious users ‘hijacking’ long-distance links. A report from AFP says the country’s dominant telco is shutting down international services for a three-month period after customers complained that their phone lines had been used to make expensive overseas calls without their knowledge. Consumers are being conned into installing software on computers which ‘takes over’ telephone connections without the owner’s knowledge. Users will still be able to access international services via the operator.