29 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for March 19, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 70 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of The TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:14:19 -0600
From: fatkinson.remove-this@and-this-too.mishmash.com
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Annoyance Calls
Message-ID: <f6b9a523546f793031b8223f3e4e22d4.squirrel@webmail.mishmash.com>
> On Mar 16, 12:18 pm, Jim Haynes <jhay...@cavern.uark.edu> wrote:
> It would've eased things to simply surrender her driver's license back
> to the state. However, health care providers required her license to
> be presented when she got care, so I still needed it as an official
> identification for her.
A number of DMVs will issue an ID that is not a driver's license. That
might be an alternative. If a person needs an ID but can't be licensed to
drive, this is the solution. You might check into that.
> P.S. When my mother passed I pulled her voter's registration. None
> of the less, for several years afterwards I was aggressively
> telephoned by campaigners asking for her to get her to go and vote.
And you can bet that she is probably on record as having recently voted
with all the voter fraud that is going on. ;-)
When my maternal grandmother passed away, my mother had been helping her
with her finances. So mother was very surprised when a bunch of bills
addressed to my grandmother showed up in the mail.
As my mother knew who my grandmother was doing business with, she called
each of them and told them that they would have to provide proof of goods
or services before she would pay them. She never heard from any of them
again and was able to proceed to close out the estate.
When my paternal grandfather passed away (Fred, Sr., I am Fred, III), I
was the first one back to my parents' house after the funeral. I went
into the back of the house.
My father (Fred, Jr.) and my aunt came in after me but didn't know I was
in the house. A few minutes later, the phone rang and my aunt answered.
The operator said, "Fred Atkinson is at a payphone and wants to charge a
call to your number". My aunt assumed it was me and said yes. A few
minutes later, it happened again and she gave approval again.
Then I walked out from the back of the house. My aunt was very surprised
and told me what had just happened. The phone rang again and this time I
answered it. The operator said, "Fred Atkinson is at a payphone and wants
to charge a call to your number".
I explained to her that I was Fred, III and I was looking at Fred, Jr.,
and that we had just buried Fred, Sr. this very morning. The operator
said, "Thank you" and hung up. The operator did not call us again.
You have to watch out for things like that when people die. As soon as
their obituary appears in the paper, look out. There are all kinds of
scum out there that will try to take advantage of the deceased.
Fred Atkinson
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:55:49 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Google first to patch Flash bug with Chrome update
Message-ID: <p062408dcc9a879bfa739@[10.0.1.3]>
Google first to patch Flash bug with Chrome update
Takes advantage of deal with Adobe to push zero-day fix a week before
others get protection
By Gregg Keizer
March 16, 2011
Computerworld - Google on Tuesday updated Chrome, patching a flaw in
the browser's copy of Flash Player.
The move let Chrome beat rival browsers to the punch: Users of
Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Safari and Opera won't receive a
Flash update from Adobe until next week.
...
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9214689/Google_first_to_patch_Flash_bug_with_Chrome_update
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:55:32 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Uncovering spoken phrases in encrypted VoIP conversations
Message-ID: <p062408e1c9a883a3f8da@[10.0.1.3]>
Spot me if you can:
Uncovering spoken phrases in encrypted VoIP conversations
Charles V. Wright, Lucas Ballard, Scott E. Coull,
Fabian Monrose, Gerald M. Masson
May 2008
Abstract
Despite the rapid adoption of Voice over IP (VoIP), its security
implications are not yet fully understood. Since VoIP calls may
traverse untrusted networks, packets should be encrypted to ensure
confidentiality. However, we show that when the audio is encoded
using variable bit rate codecs, the lengths of encrypted VoIP packets
can be used to identify the phrases spoken within a call. Our results
indicate that a passive observer can identify phrases from a standard
speech corpus within encrypted calls with an average accuracy of 50%,
and with accuracy greater than 90% for some phrases. Clearly, such an
attack calls into question the efficacy of current VoIP encryption
standards. In addition, we examine the impact of various features of
the underlying audio on our performance and discuss methods for
mitigation.
...
http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cwright/oakland08.pdf
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~fabian/papers/oakland08.pdf
http://www.infsec.cs.uni-saarland.de/teaching/WS08/Seminar/slides/goran.pdf
http://www.infsec.cs.uni-saarland.de/teaching/WS08/Seminar/reports/yes-we-can.pdf
Yes We Can:
Uncovering Spoken Phrases in Encrypted VoIP Conversations
Goran Doychev, Dominik Feld, Jonas Eckhardt, Stephan Neumann
May 28, 2009
Abstract
The growing importance of VoIP telephony over untrusted networks
raises the requirements to encrypt VoIP calls. To achieve a good
trade-off between audio quality and network trafÞc, Variable Bit Rate
(VBR) codecs are widely employed. VBR codecs encode speech data at
different bit rates depending on the complexity of the input signal.
We implemented a practical side channel attack on VoIP applications
using VBR codecs associated with length preserving encryption.
...
http://www.infsec.cs.uni-saarland.de/teaching/WS08/Seminar/reports/yes-we-can.pdf
Uncovering Spoken Phrases in Encrypted VOIP Conversations
Trent Kalisch-Smith, Charles V. Wright, Lucas Ballard
Scott E. Coull, Fabian Monrose, Gerald M. Masson
http://forum.kalkulators.org/docs/crypto/voip/W9_Uncovering_Spoken_Phrases_in_Encrypted_VOIP_Conversations_Trent_Kailash.pdf
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:49:11 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Fed instructs teachers to Facebook creep students
Message-ID: <p062408f7c9a89465e625@[10.0.1.3]>
Fed instructs teachers to Facebook creep students
By Neil Munro
The Daily Caller
03/16/2011
Education Department officials are threatening school principals with
lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students' lunchtime chat
and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are
deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some
students.
There has only been muted opposition to this far-reaching policy
among the professionals and advocates in the education sector, most
of whom are heavily reliant on funding and support from top-level
education officials. The normally government-averse tech-sector is
also playing along, and on Mar. 11, Facebook declared that it was
"thrilled" to work with White House officials to foster government
oversight of teens' online activities.
The only formal opposition has come from the National School Board
Association, which declined to be interviewed by The DC.
The agency's threats, which are delivered in a so-called "Dear
Colleague" letter," have the support of White House officials,
including President Barack Obama, who held a Mar. 10 White House
meeting to promote the initiative as a federal "anti-bullying" policy.
The letter says federal officials have reinterpreted the civil-rights
laws that require school principals to curb physical bullying, as
well as racist and sexist speech, that take place within school
boundaries. Under the new interpretation, principals and their
schools are legally liable if they fail to curb "harassment" of
students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or
in private conversation among a few youths.
...
http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/16/fed-instructs-teachers-to-facebook-creep-students/
Date: 17 Mar 2011 21:53:10 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Buying prepaid SIM cards in advance
Message-ID: <20110317215310.72578.qmail@joyce.lan>
>availability in Europe is very easy and you can even get starter SIM
>kits at corner stores. Even at arrival in Frankfurt or other major
>airport there may even be a facility in the airport to obtain a SIM.
There's an E-Plus store in the Frankfurt airport, in the underground
mall near the airport train station:
http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/content/frankfurt_airport/en/shop_enjoy0/shops/photo_electronics/e-plus.html
R's,
John
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:43:05 +1100
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Traveler hit with huge data roaming charges
Message-ID: <pan.2011.03.18.04.42.33.651320@myrealbox.com>
On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:21:24 -0500, John Mayson wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
> wrote:
>> The Phila Inqr reported about a traveler who received unexpected $20,000
>> charge for data roaming, and then his efforts to get credit for the
>> charges.
>
> I've heard horror stories from people about this. My experience is the
> wireless companies want people to use their phones overseas and really
> gloss over the facts or toss out rates in $/kB that mean nothing to the
> average consumer. I consider myself knowledgeable about telecom issues,
> but was woefully ignorant about using a mobile phone overseas and found my
> carrier wasn't the best source of information.
And it may not just "overseas", here in Australia some 3G networks only
really cover the capital cities and major population areas, but they have
roaming agreements with other carriers that do cover other areas - but at
a cost!
People have gone to an out of the way holiday destination, seen that they
have data coverage and assumed that is their carrier and therefore
covered by their plan - and returned to a nasty surprise when the bill
arrives.
--
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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