Great food, great wine and long-distance calls to the Philippines. For the Vitale family, owners of Aldo?s Ristorante Italiano in Baltimore?s Little Italy, international calls were nowhere to be found on their menu, until their phone system was hacked by an intruder.
For a restaurant that delivers food to Tom Clancy and has served royal families from the United Arab Emirates, Aldo?s was unprepared for this kind of attention.
“It can happen, and it is the subject of an FCC warning,” said Walt Sharp, a spokesman for AT&T. “This happens when you have your own commercial phone system.”
The phone system at Aldo?s was installed twenty years ago by JPI Enterprises Inc., a low-voltage electric installation and maintenance company from Baldwin. Despite maintenance and servicing from JPI, the system at Aldo?s was hacked. Acquiring remote access to the system?s voice mail, the hackers were able to create secret accounts that were activated whenever the voice mail was used. These accounts were programmed to dial the Philippines and deliver hidden voice messages.
“[Aldo?s] did some toll restrictions so the help couldn?t make long distance calls,” said Pat Ichniowski, president of JPI Enterprises Inc., “but they weren?t thinking about someone setting up a mailbox in the administrator to make long-distance calls.”
Unfortunately the problem for Vitale this time, was slightly more severe. Receiving e-mails and phone calls from AT&T?s Fraud Department that their phone system had been hacked, the Vitales were stunned. Acting quickly, AT&T shut down all long-distance calls from the restaurant and sent a letter to Aldo?s that had around 50 steps to correct their system. This week, JPI returned to fix the system and get Aldo?s phones back on track.
“They were able to find [the problem],” said Sergio Vitale about AT&T?s Fraud Department. “Now we need to send them a letter to reinstate our service.”
With the system fixed, Aldo?s is finally getting back to business as usual, and Sergio is able to use his time for some of the little things that make his job special.
“I help create some of the dishes,” he said. “It?s hard to be Italian and not do that.”
