From: Steve Schear <schear@lvdi.net>
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 09:50:02 +0800
To: John Young <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Technolgies of Political Control
In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19980125234726.00bae108@pop.pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <v03102808b0f196416f65@[208.129.55.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 6:47 PM -0500 1/25/98, John Young wrote:
>Thanks to Axel Horns and Ulf Mller we offer an excerpt
>of the draft European Parliament report on global
>surveillance cited in news reports recently:
>
>  An Appraisal of Technolgies of Political Control
>Scientific and Technological Options Assessment
>     Working Document (Consultation version)
>                  PE 166 499
>            Luxembourg, 6 January 1998

The report makes mention of built-in surveillence feature in CCITT compliant ISDN products.  ""What is not widely known is that built in to the international CCITT protocol is the ability to take phones 'off hook' and listen into conversations occurring near the phone, without the user being aware that it is happening."  Seems like an awful lot of CP using ISDN gear should beware.  Many ISDN devices are firmware based.  Might this not spawn a number of good crack projects to remove this feature from popular products.  I use an Ascend P25.  The docs say its CCITT compliant.  Sooo does it enable this form of surveillence?  Enquiring minds want to know.


The draft paper referneces an article in SGR Newsletter, No.4, 1993.  Is this a reference to Scientists for Global Responsibility?  Where can I read a copy of this article?

--Steve