From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 94 18:47:25 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: NYT on Insecure Phones
Message-ID: <199412040246.VAA25360@pipe3.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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   The New York Times last Thursday had two pieces on
   telephones that may be of interest.

   One deals with cellular fraud in NYC, given entirely here:


   "Cellular Fraud in New York

         Cellular telephone fraud in New York City has become 
so
   rampant that a cellular service in Washington will
   temporarily block its customers from using their wireless
   phones when they travel in New York.

         Cellular One of Washington-Baltimore, owned by SBC
   Communications Inc., has sent its customers letters
   notifying them that it would block the service beginning on
   Thursday because it had compiled a huge backlog of phone
   numbers used in New York that appeared to be fraudulent.

         Company officials said they would resume service once
   they finished investigating each case, which they said
   would take three weeks.

         Cellular telephone fraud occurs when people use false
   identification numbers on their wireless telephones and
   make calls. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry
   Association said fraud costs had soared to about $1 billion
   a year.

         Cellular thieves typically use radio scanners to 
capture
   the identification numbers of legitimate cellular phones,
   which transmit the numbers each time they are used. These
   numbers are then written onto a computer chip inside an
   inactive phone, effectively 'cloning' the original."

   -------------------
   End illegitimate fraud article


   Then, probably not coincidentally in this happy
   legitimate-fraud shopping season, there was a long
   consumer-oriented article the very same day, alors, about
   new cordless phones, including this info about security
   features against illegitimate fraud:

   "A new generation of digital cordless phones using a
   powerful 900 megahertz (MHz) frequency ... blocks thieves
   who scan the airwaves listening for credit card and Social
   Security numbers people innocently give over the phone. ...

   Cellular car phones and two-way radio car service
   conversations were constant unwanted companions with the
   standard cordless phones [but] with the 900 MHz phones, the
   interference was practically non-existent. ...

   The Cincinnati Microwave Escort 9020 Digital Spread
   Spectrum Cordless Telephone is one of the first models to
   feature spread-spectrum technology -- originally developed
   for the military and now being used for consumers -- that
   digitally scrambles voice communications before
   transmitting them. ...

   ... newer standard-frequency models are offering improved
   security.  By using scrambling technology -- though not as
   sophisticated as digital spread spectrum -- they block out
   most eavesdroppers.  Panasonic calls the feature Secure
   Guard; Motorola, Secure Clear, and Toshiba, Call Protect. 
   It doesn't add much to the cost ($10 to $25) and is well
   worth the money, although the phone is not as secure as a
   digital one."

   [My first PGP sig, hooray]

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