SS7 over the Net (was Re: History Channel television show on NSA)

Josh Richards jrichard at cubicle.net
Tue Jan 9 18:34:50 PST 2001


* Phillip Zakas <pzakas at toucancapital.com> [20010108 21:51]:
[..]
> BTW, has anyone heard of recent moves to push SS7 phone messaging traffic
> over the internet in a bid to boost scalability and LNP resolution speeds?

There are already carriers doing SS7 over IP via gateways.  Over the public
Internet is not a stretch from a technical standpoint but, in practice, 
I'd find it hard to believe too many LECs or IXCs going this route.  Private
IP networks, yes already in production even.  The public IP network, nobody 
serious is doing it.  Wait, well, if you just mean VoIP there are VoIP 
companies that are attempting things like this by partnering with regional 
and local ISPs to place voice gateways.  If you're talking governmental 
moves, there are easier ways.  The SS7 network isn't exactly encrypted.. 

> Three effects: it'll work better than the current SS7 network alone;
> improved eavesdropping on conversations which touch land lines (fyi only
> phone-to-phone cell phone comms like nextel's two-way-radio feature don't
> use land lines I believe); decreased need to try to decipher the message
> while it's in the air (it's harder to intercept over the air transmissions).

How does this improve eavesdropping?  SS7 is only signaling.  There is no
voice payload on the SS7 network.  SS7 simply passes signaling information
around.  Perhaps the knowledge of calling and called party since those
digits are passed via SS7 but the converstation is entirely distinct.

-jr

----
Josh Richards [JTR38/JR539-ARIN]
<jrichard at geekresearch.com/cubicle.net/fix.net/freedom.gen.ca.us>
Geek Research LLC - <URL:http://www.geekresearch.com/>
IP Network Engineering and Consulting
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 240 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks-legacy/attachments/20010109/d4ddbff6/attachment.sig>


More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list