On Wed, May 20, 1998 at 02:44:42AM -0400, John Fraizer - Administrator wrote:
Interesting. Of course, we know from the OJ saga that Cellphones can be located well enough to find a moving vehicle...
Anyone who thinks they can hide or have a private conversation for that matter and owns a cellular phone is sadly mistaken. The fact of the matter is that it is possible to send commands to the phone from the MTSO and cause it to turn on the hands-free mic and transmit on channel xxx at a power level of yyy with a SAT tone of zzz. It is then trivial to put one of the scanning receivers in each of the cell sites in the area surrounding the LKA of the phone into receive on that channel, voting S/N on the SAT tone to get the best audio from the best receiver and piping the audio to a test jack on the switch which has a recorder/speaker/whatever connected.
While we're at it, since we know you're on transmitting on channel XXX, it is trivial to DF you based on foreign-carrier-detect alarms alone within about 1000 yards. Beyond that, anyone with the most antiquated DF equipment could find you in minutes.
Of course, I've never done this. Especially not with an EMX-2500. And most definitely not in Charlotte, NC while working for the B carrier there.
Still, very big-brotherish.
The fix for that is to turn the frigging phone OFF unless you're using it for a conversation. If you ARE using it for a conversation, treat it as a party line on which you can be heard - because it is - unless your MTSO supports encrypted transmission (some phones can do this - does ANY MTSO support it? I've yet to find one that does). -- -- Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin http://www.mcs.net/ | T1's from $600 monthly / All Lines K56Flex/DOV | NEW! Corporate ISDN Prices dropped by up to 50%! Voice: [+1 312 803-MCS1 x219]| EXCLUSIVE NEW FEATURE ON ALL PERSONAL ACCOUNTS Fax: [+1 312 803-4929] | *SPAMBLOCK* Technology now included at no cost