From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 93 11:08:17 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Bidzos (RSA) on "Primetime Live" (was: cellular)
In-Reply-To: <9310221720.AA21055@sfsuvax1.sfsu.edu>
Message-ID: <9310221808.AA28681@netcom5.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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


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