FCC Concerned Over DefCon Mobile Hacking Talk

[Johnboy60]

Chris Paget wants to demonstrate how easy it is to snoop in on mobile-phone conversations. The question is: Will the federal authorities allow it?

At the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas on Saturday, Paget is scheduled to demonstrate a device called an IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity) catcher, which can be used to intercept mobile-phone data on the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks used by much of the world.

FCC Concerned Over DefCon Mobile Hacking Talk - PCWorld Business Center

 

[BobW188]

Who knows how many unblocked scanner radios are still out there, or scanners with the frequency blocks removed. If there isn't "wire all the way,' it's a radio, not a telephone, and somebody can build or modify a receiver to intercept it.

The laws may be well and good but laws, after all, exist because lawbreakers do. Use a wireless, use a mobile, and someone else may be listening.

 

[mpok1519]

There's the tradeoff; talk in person and it's private. Talk over air waves and it's not.

 

[moonkitty]

Anyone desperate enough to listen in on my phone calls must have a pretty boring life. LOL.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

There's the tradeoff; talk in person and it's private. Talk over air waves and it's not.

Those "private" conversations are not private; government is listening to them as well. See how fast you get arrested for saying bomb in an airport.

 

[KIYX]

It would seem to me that it would be in the FCC's best interests to allow this.

Lets learn about the problem so it can be fixed.

 

[laconicstudent]

Those "private" conversations are not private; government is listening to them as well. See how fast you get arrested for saying bomb in an airport.

Obviously a discussion in a crowded public area wouldn't be "private" by any stretch of the imagination.