The Telecom Digest for January 07, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 7 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
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Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 00:01:23 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Mobile Forensic Products
Message-ID: <p06240830c94afc018bc4@[192.168.180.236]>
Cellebrite UFED system
Universal forensic extraction device for cell phones,
smartphones and PDAs
The UFED system extracts vital information from 95% of all cellular
phones on the market today, including smartphones and PDA devices
(Palm OS, Microsoft, Blackberry, Symbian, iPhone, and Google
Android).
...
http://www.cellebrite.com/forensic-products/ufed-standard-kit.html
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:02:26 -0800
From: Richard <rng@richbonnie.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The heart of Stuxnet
Message-ID: <gfmai6l1ubnpmn0q9ju1up1cf2mmcl2vap@4ax.com>
On Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:18:17 -0800, AES <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote:
>
>In the commercial or business or military leadership communities -- not
>just in the IT parts of those organizations, but in their senior
>leadership and administrative circles (corporate presidents, CEOs, CFOs,
>Generals, Admirals) -- is it explicitly considered to be professionally
>unacceptable and unethical to use Windows software in any
>mission-critical aspects of their organizations?
>
>Should it be?
IMHO, Windows platforms should not be used for mission-critical
systems.
It also should not be used in unattended applications. More than
once, I have seen the Windoes Blue Screen of Death on unattended
information kiosks. A few years ago, I saw it on the electronic sign
of a casino.
Richard
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 10:48:19 -0800 (PST)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: More on abandonment of telephone directories
Message-ID: <f146bf9d-1a0c-48c4-b9cb-46ba38dfc6d2@l17g2000yqe.googlegroups.com>
A detailed article in the Philadelphia Inquirer talks about
eliminating telephone directories.
see: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_top_stories/20110106_The_phone_book_becomes_a_by-request_item_many_disdain.html
One person quoted in the article, a web publisher, asserts that people
don't want to receive telephone books anymore. I don't agree with
that.
Others feel they're environmentally wasteful; and are pushing for laws
that effectively ban telephone directories. I'm not sure that's a
good idea or justified.
The elimination isn't just the white pages, but the yellow pages as
well. Critics say cell phone apps do a better job than a hard copy
directory.
My own experiences with online directories has not been satisfactory.
One website defaults me to a distant state which I have to keep
overtyping to do a local search. All websites listed for me a phone
number and residence that was disconnected at least five years
earlier.
Most disturbingly was that my actual home listing was incorrect (it is
correct in the printed phone book). Different websites have me living
in different towns all of which are wrong. Further, one must search
for it exactly as it appears, a fuzzy search or on incorrect first
name spelling will result in "nothing found". In a printed book not
knowing the first name or spelling it wrong doesn't matter as one can
still merely go down the list of last names.
Sometimes the websites won't filter as asked, such as returning a huge
list of statewide names when only a region is desired.
Some websites show additional personal information about a person,
with an option to pay a fee to get more data. I've never paid the
fee, so I don't know how good the premium data is, but the teasers are
inaccurate. Somehow they've managed to link my parents with me,
except both my parents are deceased and they don't show that. I can't
help but get the impression the premium data site is kind of sleazy,
where one has to pay multiple a la carte fees to get any actual useful
accurate information.
All the websites run all sorts of ads next to the white pages
listing. They seem to screw up here, as well, such as advertising
pizza places that are 150 miles away from town being searched.
Yellow pages websites have accuracy and inclusion problems, too.
Often businesses have multiple listings in the printed edition to
accomodate different names. For example, "John Smith Real Estate"
will be listed under both "John" and "Smith" to ensure a consumer
finds it. That hasn't been my experience with online sites. As
mentioned above, sometimes businesses far away are returned in
searches, when local businesses don't appear at all, even when a
geographic filter is included.
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 13:40:14 -0600
From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: More on abandonment of telephone directories
Message-ID: <80a6b6642083e4a2f4dfc6b15d623fff.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com>
The major problem with the online 'directory assistance' sites is
that they are often months behind in updates. It takes months for a
new number to appear in it and months for a changed number to be
updated. It even takes months for a defunct number to be removed.
If someone would take on a directory assistance site that was updated
daily with all the new phone numbers, phone number updates, and
deletions, then this could take off.
The problem would be negotiating with all the major, minor, and mom
'n pops telcos to provide them with daily listing updates. I'm sure
someone could come up with the servers and bandwidth to support it.
An example is QRZ.com. It is a Web site that allows you to look up
contact information for ham radio operators and clubs by their radio
call signs. Fred Lloyd runs this site. Fred gets daily updates from
the FCC so all of these U. S. listings are typically no more than
twenty-four hours behind the FCC database updates. Listings from
other countries, however, may take much longer as he doesn't get
frequent updates from their equivalent of the Federal Communications
Commission. I suspect some countries may provide daily or frequent
updates if they have the infrastructure to do it.
However, this site should be limited to U.S. listings at least at first.
Back to the directory assistance site issue.
They could finance this operation by placing ads on the site as Fred
Lloyd does. And just think of the cost it would save the telephone
companies by not having to publish and distribute those directories.
Is there a entrepreneur out there that would be willing to undertake
this monumental task?
Regards,
Fred
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 14:20:14 -0500
From: Telecom Digest Moderator <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: I'm looking for a job [nfp]
Message-ID: <20110106192014.GA11421@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
I have decided to look for a new job, and would appreciate any leads
from the readers about telecom jobs in the Boston area. Please reply
off-list.
TIA.
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM for direct emails)
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 13:45:24 -0600
From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Ham radio invaluable during NM outage
Message-ID: <d913c1f9738b847c12310884f9655ac0.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com>
We recently had two major telephone outages here in New Mexico. In
the first one, three fiber optics cables were cut at the same time.
I'm not so sure about the second one.
Our local amateur radio club deployed operators in neighborhoods that
were without communication.
Our local newspaper did an article on it that was published this
morning. They came out to our club house and interviewed us. I
thought I'd send everyone the link to the article.
http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_17022138
Regards,
Fred Atkinson
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:39:25 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: The heart of Stuxnet
Message-ID: <pan.2011.01.06.23.39.22.202221@myrealbox.com>
On Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:18:17 -0800, AES wrote:
> In article <pan.2011.01.05.02.23.32.611689@myrealbox.com>,
> David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com> wrote:
>
>
>> If a road vehicle had the same ongoing quantity of potentially
>> disastrous flaws as is inherent in all versions of Microsoft Windows,
>> I would contend that it would be immediately banned from the public
>> roads.
>>
>> This sort of thing could be used to compromise virtually any utility -
>> power, telecommunications, water etc. - that are silly enough to use
>> these inherently unsafe platforms.
>>
>>
> In the commercial or business or military leadership communities -- not
> just in the IT parts of those organizations, but in their senior
> leadership and administrative circles (corporate presidents, CEOs, CFOs,
> Generals, Admirals) -- is it explicitly considered to be professionally
> unacceptable and unethical to use Windows software in any
> mission-critical aspects of their organizations?
>
> Should it be?
Maybe if the tech-heads specifically pointed out that these things were
inherently insecure, and using them would open up their organisations to
all sort of vulnerabilities, then perhaps they may not be used?
I would imagine that there are multiple issues here, firstly the
information being made clear by those who know, secondly whether it is
either disregarded (or covered up) on its way to the top, and thirdly if
those at the top care enough to take notice.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
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End of The Telecom Digest (7 messages)
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