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The Telecom Digest for June 14, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 150 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
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Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:10:40 -0700
From: John David Galt <jdg@diogenes.sacramento.ca.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: New telephone area-code 431 in Winnipeg area?
Message-ID: <it1773$grr$1@blue-new.rahul.net>
Some Guy wrote:
> The caller ID info is injected during the space between the first and
> second rings - right? Do telco's allow customers to inject their own
> info somehow to over-ride the real data?
Any business that operates its own PBX is allowed to generate its own
Caller ID strings. I don't know of any telco that vets them.
Technically, this isn't that different from the way some people used to
commit DDOS attacks against large parts of the Internet - simply by
sending lots of network packets with random numbers where the From: IP
address is supposed to go. Today this technique no longer works in most
of the world, because your Internet provider checks that the packets your
computer sends to it are "from" IP numbers registered as belonging to you
or to itself. If too many aren't, the provider disables your account and
tells you why.
All telcos technically can, and ought to, similarly vet the numbers in
Caller ID strings their PBX-owning subscribers send. But as long as the
only effect of junk calls on telcos' bottom line is as paying traffic,
the telcos will continue enabling the spammers and frustrating any tech
that would help you block their calls.
All this would be grounds for a well-deserved class action lawsuit, but
apparently AT&T now has an unbreakable defense against those, too. Darn!
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:38:41 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: I.M.F. Reports Cyberattack Led to 'Very Major Breach'
Message-ID: <p06240820ca19f3256277@[10.0.1.3]>
I.M.F. Reports Cyberattack Led to 'Very Major Breach'
By DAVID E. SANGER and JOHN MARKOFF
June 11, 2011
WASHINGTON - The International Monetary Fund, still struggling to
find a new leader after the arrest of its managing director last
month in New York, was hit recently by what computer experts describe
as a large and sophisticated cyberattack whose dimensions are still
unknown.
The fund, which manages financial crises around the world and is the
repository of highly confidential information about the fiscal
condition of many nations, told its staff and its board of directors
about the attack on Wednesday. But it did not make a public
announcement.
Several senior officials with knowledge of the attack said it was
both sophisticated and serious. "This was a very major breach," said
one official, who said that it had occurred over the last several
months, even before Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French politician who
ran the fund, was arrested on charges of sexually assaulting a
chamber maid in a New York hotel.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/12imf.html
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 12:51:12 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Hackers and thieves a growing Web menace / Technology lag leaves systems vulnerable
Message-ID: <p06240834ca1a9e2930fb@[10.0.1.3]>
Hackers and thieves a growing Web menace
Technology lag leaves systems vulnerable
By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff / June 11, 2011
On the Internet, there's nowhere left to hide.
Around the world, computer networks are getting more vulnerable even
as they grow more sophisticated. They are being penetrated and looted
by digital intruders.
The personal records of 100 million people were stolen in an attack
on Sony Corp.'s video game networks. Up to 210,000 unemployed
Massachusetts residents were put at risk by data theft software that
infected computers at the state's Executive Office of Labor and
Workforce Development. And in March, criminals stole vital
information from Bedford data protection company RSA Security, a
division of Hopkinton storage giant EMC Corp. The stolen RSA data was
later used in a hacker raid on defense contractor Lock heed Martin
Corp., an RSA client.
The list of data breaches grows almost daily, and while consumers and
businesses can take steps to reduce the risk of losing sensitive
information, security analysts say that making our computer networks
truly secure is virtually impossible.
...
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2011/06/11/hackers_thieves_run_wild_on_internet/
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:40:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Cable rates are rising, but don't blame your provider - entirely
Message-ID: <619e8f54-689d-4c59-a7ab-4fceaffb01c7@g12g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>
Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com> wrote:
> To: redacted@invalid.telecom-digest.org
>
> Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
> ..
>> Just tell Mayor Menino that he's a pretentious blow-hard, and organize a
>> boycott of Comcast: they'll get the message. Better yet, turn it off,
>> get a library card, and read a book.
> That isn't going to happen.
> Perhaps going to Dish or Direct is the answer.
You missed the whole point of the original Boston.com article. Going
to Dish or DirecTV is simply a switch from one retailer to another.
The point of the article (and my post a few hours after yours) is to
point out the effect of monopoly situation at the WHOLESALE level.
If Walmart wants to sell TV sets or cabbages or shoes at retail, it
can choose among wholesalers, and negotiate prices based on its market
power in the retail marketplace. It can use its market power to force
wholesalers to compete for its business. Furthermore, it can choose
to purchase, or not purchase, other products from the same
wholesalers. Walmart's competitors are free to make the same choices.
But if Comcast wants to sell (carry) the signal of WFXT (the Fox
affiliate in the Boston DMA), at retail, it has one choice: News
Corporation. News Corp has the market power to demand whatever it
wishes. It has the power to force Comcast to carry, and pay for,
other News Corp products such as FX, Fox News, Fox Sports, and WZMY-TV
(the MyNetworkTV affiliate in the Boston DMA) as part of the deal.
The fact that Comcast has competitors (Dish and DirecTV) increases
News Corp's market power. And, of course, Dish and DirecTV face the
same situation in their negotiations with News Corp.
>***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> If it doesn't happen for others, they get to bear the consequences. You have
> your own choice.
What choice? WFXT from Comcast, WFXT from Dish, or WFXT from
DirecTV? No matter which you choose, News Corp still gets its pound
of flesh.
Now I realize, of course, that you could receive WFXT off the air for
free and without being forced to pay for Fox News, Fox Sports, Fox
Whatever. Good for you! But be sure to thank all those Comcast,
Dish, and DirecTV subscribers that are subsidizing you. That's why
it's called "consumer protection"!
Neal McLain
***** Moderator's Note *****
"What choice?"? The choice to not watch it, of course.
I've written about the evils of television in this and other forums,
and my views haven't changed. If you want to believe that the Tall
White Guy should make all the decisions, that's your choice. I
don't care what WFXT-TV broadcasts, or what Comcrap pays to relay the
ooze from one screen to another, because I don't watch it.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: 12 Jun 2011 16:56:39 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: New telephone area-code 431 in Winnipeg area?
Message-ID: <it3967$8ab$1@panix2.panix.com>
In article <4DF2579D.E927FA74@Guy.com>, Some Guy <Some@Guy.com> wrote:
>How exactly can someone inject their own caller-ID information into the
>phone system?
Order a T-1 from the telco. You send the telco the audio and the signalling
information in digital format. That includes the CID.
The ANI is determined by the telco itself; they don't want anyone spoofing
that and not getting billed properly. But the CID is determined by the
originator.
>The caller ID info is injected during the space between the first and
>second rings - right? Do telco's allow customers to inject their own
>info somehow to over-ride the real data?
No. But if you're originating the call from a PBX or from a VoIP gateway,
you can tell the exchange what the data are.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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