Archive for Telecom
Author: Dave Lewis
July 10, 2008 at 8:00 am · Filed under Politics, Spy Game, Telecom
This is just sad.
From The New York Times:
The measure, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, is the biggest revamping of federal surveillance law in 30 years. It includes a divisive element that Mr. Bush had deemed essential: legal immunity for the phone companies that cooperated in the National Security Agency wiretapping program he approved after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The vote came two and a half years after public disclosure of the wiretapping program set off a fierce national debate over the balance between protecting the country from another terrorist strike and ensuring civil liberties. The final outcome in Congress, which opponents of the surveillance measure had conceded for weeks, seemed almost anticlimactic in contrast.
So, the ISP’s get their immunity.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Article Link
Author: Dave Lewis
June 24, 2008 at 5:45 am · Filed under Spam/Phishing, Telecom
From the BBC:
The net could see its biggest transformation in decades if plans to open up the address system are passed.
The net’s regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed.
If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.
The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.
The part I find funny is the number of politicians that think having a .xxx domain will cordon off sexually oriented websites from the rest of the web.
The move could yet be blocked as the independent arbitration panel can reject domains based on “morality or public order” grounds.
Morality on the Internet. Hmmm, ok.
Article Link
Author: Dave Lewis
February 1, 2008 at 4:38 pm · Filed under DR/BCP, Telecom
OK, so once is an accident. Twice a coincidence but, a third time in as many days? I find this one a little too convenient.
From the Globe and Mail:
Bandwidth providers in India said they were working to restore service to about 80 per cent of its usual speed Friday.
Many companies said their Internet access already had gotten better.
“We’ve been getting and sending e-mails normally. Compared to yesterday connectivity is certainly improved,” said Praveen Mathur of Streit India Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd., an New Delhi-based investment consulting firm with clients in the United States and Canada.
Rajesh Chharia, president of India’s Internet Service Provider’s Association, said access improved as service providers rerouted traffic across the Pacific.
In Egypt, Internet access remained sporadic or nonexistent Friday, the first day of the official Muslim weekend in the Middle East when all government offices and most businesses are closed. Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Tarek Kamil said service would be up to about 80 per cent of its usual capacity within 48 hours.
Not a conspiracy theory so, you can dispel that one. I just find it a remarkable coincidence that three undersea cables got nailed in a week.
I’m just saying.
Article Link
Tags: Undersea Cable, Third Undersea Cable, No Internet Access, Internet Outage
Author: Dave Lewis
November 6, 2007 at 8:20 am · Filed under Crime, Telecom
Oops.
From Computer World:
Roberto Preatoni was charged Monday with unauthorized access to computer systems and wiretapping, said the reports (in Italian). Sources confirmed he is the same Roberto Preatoni who is a founder and director of strategy with WabiSabiLabi. A representative of the security startup declined to comment today. He said the company would send an e-mail statement later in the day.
Preatoni’s company was launched in July, billing itself as an online marketplace for exploit code that could be used to hack into computer systems. Legitimate companies such as 3Com and Verisign have paid for this type of code in the past, but WabiSabiLabi was the first open marketplace for such software. Preatoni, who spoke at Microsoft’s Blue Hat security conference just weeks ago, billed his marketplace as a mechanism that would allow independent security researchers to get paid for their work.
Preatoni’s work at WabiSabiLabi apparently has nothing to do with his arrest. The trouble reportedly started with his security consulting work as a penetration tester — a security expert hired to test working networks for vulnerabilities.
Sometimes folks cross the line. Whether or not this is the case here is a subject for the Italian courts. It is unclear at this point how this will affect the future of his fledgling startup.
Article Link
Tags: WabiSabiLabi, Roberto Preatoni, Telecom Italia, Italian Spying Scandal
Author: Dave Lewis
November 2, 2007 at 6:17 am · Filed under Spy Game, Telecom
Well, at least someone has some stones in DC.
From Washington Post:
In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat and Republican expressed reluctance yesterday to granting blanket immunity to telecommunications carriers sued for assisting the government’s warrantless surveillance program.
Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), had said that before even considering such a proposal, they would need to see the legal documents underpinning the program, which began after Sept. 11, 2001, and were put under court oversight in January.
On Tuesday, the committee was given access to some of the documents. But Leahy said yesterday that he had a “grave concern” about blanket immunity, saying that “it seems to grant . . . amnesty for telecommunications carriers for warrantless surveillance activities.”
Slowly but surely the light is being switched to the “on” position.
Article Link
Tags: Telecom Immunity, Telecom Surveillance, Warrantless Wiretaps
Author: Dave Lewis
November 1, 2007 at 1:19 pm · Filed under Telecom
Bell Canada pushed an update to their systems this morning but, all was not well. PBX failures occurred across Ontario affecting hospitals and basically anyone in Ontario that uses DNIS numbers (Dialed Number Identification System). After 30 minutes they backed out of the upgrade. The amusing part is that they sent their customers an email saying that the upgrade had been “successful” but there were problems as “they disrupted a lot of service for customers”.
Um, by definition would that not denote a failure?
Tags: DNIS, PBX, Bell Canada
Author: Dave Lewis
October 2, 2007 at 8:43 pm · Filed under Privacy, Telecom
Under new laws in the UK information about all phone calls and text messages is required to be saved for a year. Including the calls and texts themselves.
From BBC:
Data about calls made and received will also be available to 652 public bodies, including the police and councils.
The Home Office said the content of calls and texts would not be read and insisted the move was vital to tackle serious crime and terrorism.
But critics said it was another example of Britain’s “surveillance society”.
The new law, under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, was signed off by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in July.
It requires phone companies to log data on every call or text made to and from every phone in Britain.
Queue up your favourite Big Brother jokes and I don’t mean that pathetic TV show.
Article Link
Tags: Big Brother, UK Surveillance, Surveillance Society
Author: Ben Blakely
July 3, 2007 at 7:53 am · Filed under Telecom, VoIP
Recently I bought a new house which left me without Internet for about 3 weeks. Sasktel takes forever when you need your internet hooked up! Anyways… the day I moved in I started a scan for some Wifi access points. Luckily my neighbor had a open Wifi access point so I jumped all over that.
Article Link
Tags: Sasktel, Digital Cable, IP Telephony
Author: Dave Lewis
May 3, 2007 at 3:25 pm · Filed under How To, Privacy, Telecom
I had this email sent in today from a Security Digest reader, “superfly”. I read it through, and I felt this is worth posting. This is a little off topic for us but, worth a read. This outlines a campaign to fight back against the telemarketers. Here in Canada we don’t have a “do not call” list. I feel that we sorely need one. Not sure if this will work but, I’m willing to give it a go.
It’s time to take a business approach to solve the issue of unwanted calls at home from telemarketers. We must first recognize that they are a necessary evil, as the numbers strongly support telemarketing campaigns as a cost effective way to generate business. Once we understand that, we can peel the layers of the onion a bit and arrive at solution that might take hold. This solution is so beautiful it will appease the sales organization as well as you, the person who does not want these calls to happen.
Here is the plan: when you get a call that you expect (caller ID, or ring pattern) to be from a telemarketer, answer the phone. Wait for the computer that dialed your number to hand you off to a live person (1 to 3 seconds), and when they start talking simply say ‘Block Me’ and hang up.
Why this will work: First of all, telemarketing companies live and die by analyzing statistics of all shapes and sizes. Don’t think for one minute that they are not using every aspect of the outbound phone campaigns to their advantage. One example: Did you ever wonder why you sometimes get a rash of calls during the day as evidenced by your fancy phone log, and then slowly but surely you start getting more when you are home at night? They use the ‘no answer’ statistics to track down when you are most likely to be home, and then they move in for the kill.
More after the jump »
