Jim Choate writes:

Glad to meet another 'proffesional' security person. I worked for a major university doing all kinds of physical security and access abuse for 5 years. Was a lot of fun and got to play with all kinds of nifty stuff...:)

My favorite is the toilet roll camera made for Airports....

Whoah! Tell us more! This sounds pretty ominous. No shit. I guess this is what cops really mean when they say they'll "wipe for fingerprints." --Tim -- .......................................................................... 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.

Hi Tim, Hope you are having a good holiday...I am....:) Anyway, I got this catalog from some security convention that I went to which had all kinds of cameras in objects. They had them in toilet paper tubes for Airports (after seeing this I always put my jacket over the toilet paper roll in public restrooms....:) and clocks for Banks and semi-public areas. Generaly they would have a fiber optic cable run a few inches to a small vidicon type setup. There are also the ones made w/ CCD's which may or may not have a cable to them. With the b/w cameras it is possible to digitize the video and store it on audio cassettes (there was a toy camera a couple of years ago which used this technology, it is still highly prised by amateur roboticists) or even send it over a am rf link (one of the local volunteer fire depts. uses this technology for fighting brush fires). Any particular questions? Can't promise an answer...

Jim choate says...

Since most police departments don't encrypt (or at least not strongly) their database searches from their in-car computers I can see a possible hole here. I really don't expect it to stay open very long however (a year or two at best).

I know such data can be accepted by a normal pc w/ a scanner and modem. It should not be much of a step to put a xmitter online and do some spoofing.

I think you will find that most modems will NOT demodulate this data, only the simplest RF data links use modulation schemes compatible with standard modems. (For example, the RF Packet Data systems that are merely grown up versions of the equipment sold to amateur radio operators that does use modems that comply to CCITT or old Bell standards). But most police departments that are using mobile data terminals are using proprietary modulation schemes. So you would have to determine what type of systems are in use in the target area, and then obtain a compatible unit with a spoofed unit identification. Not that easy. A lot harder than just monitoring these transmissions. Check out a publication called "The SPEC-COM Journal", available at Ham Radio stores near you, this is the definitive guide to different and experimental modulation schemes that Hams are playing with. -- Rusty H. Hodge, Cyberneticist <rustman@netcom.com>