Dog Face writes:
While taking a *study* break last night I caught the last couple of minutes of a report on the cellular phone hacking on Prime Time Live - KABC(?) west coast. Someone, presumably, from one of the cellular phone co's came up with a security scheme that would stop people from hacking into other people's accounts - using digital signatures! When asked how long this *technology*'s been around he answered its been out for awhile, only it has been implemented yet because no one was willing to pay for it. I wonder....
Also, they mentioned something about 400 people being caught by the S.S. so far this year(?) on cellular hacking charges. Is this correct?
I didn't catch the whole show and am not sure if I ingested what was being said properly (I was too tired to chew) so if anyone caught the whole piece or knows more please post.
Indeed, the whole piece was an obvious attempt to "scare" users of illegal services into compliance, just as we saw some years back when a lot of folks were "illegally" receiving cable. Many immmigrant communities (Aremenians, Columbians, etc.) are using these cellular phones in huge quantities. What can or will be done? A kind of "digital postage" of the sort we often discuss here would be ideal: the various service providers (satellites, relays, etc.) only carry the signal if payment is attached. With anonymous systems this would be like using a payphone. In fact, RSA's Jim Bidzos was intereviewed very briefly...no more than 20 seconds...and he alluded to the RSA products as being ideal. (I sent him an e-mail message last night asking if he was implying some form of digital money/postage...most likely not). Unfortunately, the next topic in the segment was how audio conversations (what about data?) might have unique voice ID patterns encoded in them to foil rip-off artists. A voice registry? A scary notion, and one we should be on the lookout for. (I don't think it would work, as it would be even more unwieldy and problematic than key escrow. And easy to alter voices, etc.) --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.