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The Telecom Digest for July 15, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 174 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Most cellphone voice mail is vulnerable to hackers(Monty Solomon)
Re: Metro PCS type Service in UK(John Levine)
Re: Battery power support today(Michael Moroney)
Transit agency surveys social media usage(Lisa or Jeff)
Tracing Calls w/Spoofed Numbers?(Pete Creswell)

====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:34:15 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Most cellphone voice mail is vulnerable to hackers 
Message-ID: <p06240834ca434104e51d@[10.0.1.4]>

Most cellphone voice mail is vulnerable to hackers
Online services guide the way

By Hiawatha Bray
Globe Staff / July 13, 2011

Breaking into someone's voice mailbox - in the style of the hackers 
at the British tabloid News of the World - can be as easy in the 
United States as it is on the other side of the Atlantic.

It is done using a readily available online service known as "caller 
ID spoofing,'' which can make a call appear to be coming from any 
phone number. Hackers can use it to access someone else's voice mail 
messages by fooling the system into thinking the call is coming from 
the owner's cellphone.

If the mailbox is not protected by a password, as is often the case, 
the attacker can hear and even delete messages in the target's voice 
mailbox.

There are numerous spoofing services in the United States; all you 
need to do is Google them. Although these services are used by 
hackers to commit crimes, they're also used legitimately by, for 
example, battered women who do not want their calls traced, or law 
enforcement agents operating undercover.

...

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/07/13/most_cellphone_voice_mail_is_vulnerable/




Date: 14 Jul 2011 00:33:27 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Metro PCS type Service in UK 
Message-ID: <20110714003327.5055.qmail@joyce.lan>

>> O2 offers unlimited talk and text for £46.00 month to month, £41.00 on
>> a 12 month contract if you bring your own phone. Most carriers offer
>> unlimited texts or unlimited calls to landlines as an option in their
>> £20 and up plans.

>That is a real help.  I will check out their international rates for
>calling back to the US.  If they are reasonable, o2 will fit my needs.

The international rates on that plan are awful (103p/min), but there
are plenty of dialaround services that will let you call the US for
2p/min.  You call the UK number of the dialaround service from your
phone (free on an unlimited talk plan), then call the number you want
to call.  That's what I did when I was living in the UK.  You can put
the whole thing on speed dial for your most often dialed numbers.

R's,
John




Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:07:13 +0000 (UTC)
From: moroney@world.std.spaamtrap.com (Michael Moroney)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Battery power support today
Message-ID: <ivktth$f34$1@pcls6.std.com>

Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> writes:

>I believe such locomotives generate AC, rectifier to DC, then convert
>it back to AC for traction usage; apparently the frequency is varied
>to drive the motor.  (There are others who can explain modern AC
>traction better than I can).  What confuses me is why bother to
>convert to DC and back to AC instead of merely generating at AC and
>using that?

AC electric motors will try to rotate at a rate determined by the
AC frequency they are supplied.  Since trains move at a rate anywhere
from 0 to some maximum speed, that doesn't work so well.
Variable Frequency Drives supply AC motors with AC at a frequency (and
voltage) appropiate to the current speed of the train.

Listen as a modern-ish subway or electric train pulls out of a station
making musical notes.  That's the VFD converting DC to AC at a 
frequency best to drive the motor, or the motor responding to that
frequency.




Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:39:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Lisa or Jeff <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Transit agency surveys social media usage  
Message-ID: <a74b1dec-94d5-4cdc-a31c-a6662b841717@d1g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>

The Phila transit agency, SEPTA, is conducting a service on how much
its riders use social media and if and how riders would like to use
such media to communicate with the agency to get fare and schedule
information.

(SEPTA has rolled out several cell phone apps for riders.)

http://www.septa.org/cs/survey/




Date: Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:17:50 -0400
From: Pete Creswell <x@y.Invalid>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Tracing Calls w/Spoofed Numbers? 
Message-ID: <gmqt17lk33s4khd1mfgtjudeet1v33o37t@4ax.com>

Is this even possible - given the resources of a government?

I keep getting these lame-sounding letters from the Pennsylvania
(USA) AG's office explaining why they can't do anything about
telephone solicitors calling my cell phone.

The reason given is that they are offshore, spoofing CallerID,
and/or relaying calls through multiple servers.

But the cynic in me thinks that if those same calls were to a
high-ranking politician, perhaps threatening bodily harm... that
the NSA would be all over the perp in a matter of days - if not
hours or minutes.

Am I wrong?
-- 
PeteCresswell





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