‘Long numbers’ (i.e. numbers that look like normal mobile phone numbers, but usually only receive SMS) are really, really useful when you don’t want the hassle of a shortcode. I’ve been using them for years here in the UK for an array of different services that I dreamt up.

I most recently built a private Twitter-style SMS system for a client using some UK inbound numbers. Love it.

You can find TynTec’s offering here.

(By the way, we’ve got a video of TynTec’s top chap, Michael Kowalzik, that we filmed at Mobile World Congress. It’s coming soon along with all the other footage!)

But it was back in 2006.

German Police have reportedly recovered copies of the data.

But some bright spark — or a few bright sparks — are thought to still be holding copies of the data.

Not good.

Not good at all.

What can you do when this sort of thing happens? Hardly anything. Watch your bank statements, I suppose. Think twice about receiving calls from folk claiming to be from T-Mobile and wanting to ‘update their records’ with your bank details.

I wonder what kind of security mobile operators have in place to prevent this kind of thing happening…