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The Telecom Digest for January 6, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 6 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
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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: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 00:46:04 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: SEAS Computer Scientists Find Vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP Phones
Message-ID: <p06240802cd0d6e5e7f8b@[10.0.1.2]>
SEAS Computer Scientists Find Vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP Phones
Computer Science PhD candidate Ang Cui and Computer Science Professor
Salvatore Stolfo have found serious vulnerabilities in Cisco VoIP
(voice over internet protocol) telephones, devices used around the
world by a broad range of networked organizations from governments to
banks to major corporations, and beyond. In particular, they have
discovered troubling security breaches with Cisco's VoIP phone
technology. At a recent conference on the security of connected
devices, Cui demonstrated how they can easily insert malicious code
into a Cisco VoIP phone (any of the 14 Cisco Unified IP Phone models)
and start eavesdropping on private conversations-not just on the
phone but also in the phone's surroundings-from anywhere in the world.
...
http://www.engineering.columbia.edu/seas-computer-scientists-find-vulnerabilities-cisco-voip-phones
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 07:38:48 -0500
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: hazard mitigation, was Disruptions: The Real Hazards of E-Devices on Planes
Message-ID: <MPG.2b51e8e68e5bf2ab989d78@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <20130102175633.GC887@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
bill@horneQRM.net says...
>
> On Wed, Jan 02, 2013 at 04:20:21PM +0000, danny burstein wrote:
> > In <20130102082425.GA18755@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> writes:
> > [snip of some good comments re: security theater]
> >
> >> * They wish that terrorists will confine their attention to our air
> >> transport industry, and not bother the millions of gallons of poison
> >> gas - excuse me, I meant water treatment chemicals - that moves by
> >> rail through our major cities on a daily basis.
> >
> > Actually... there's a huge amount of retrofitting and changes
> > in high risk industries in general, and in water treatment
> > plants in particular. Specifically because of post 9/11 concerns.
> >
> > Check with your local water treatment plant, for example.
> > There's a good chance they've switched from using chlorine
> > tanks, which if breached would cause massive ugliness, to
> > using, umm, some chlorinated compound whose name escapes me.
> > If the new stockpile was damaged it still wouldn't be any fun,
> > but the destructive potential is far less.
>
> I'm sorry to say that the destructive potential is actually greater:
> it's not our lives that terrorists want to end, but our life*style*. A
> leak or spill of a less dangerous chemical is more disruptive than one
> of chlorine gas, for several reasons:
>
> 1. There's only one procedure in place for chemical spills, and only
> one option when they occur: evacuation and containment. It doesn't
> matter if there "should" be a lower response level for a "less
> dangerous" chemical: as a practical matter, the first-responders
> must be trained to deal with each event in the same way.
>
> 2. No matter how dangerous the chemical, there will be panic. Every
> mother will demand that her kid be removed from day care, and every
> business in the affected area will have to shut down.
>
> 3. U.S. Media always hype the danger of any chemical spill, and so the
> public perception of an attack will be as great, or greater, than
> it would be for a chrorine leak.
>
> This thread is about the dangers of electronic devices on airplanes,
> but it's also about the ways we assess and deal with risk. The most
> effective terrorist attack is not a firestorm or a flood: it is the
> smell of some unknown substance burning, combined with a leaking roof,
> because the terrorist wants to leverage our own fear to maximize the
> effect of his attacks. I'll paraphrase Bruce Schneier: Al Queda cannot
> terrorize us. Only we can do that.
>
> Bill
>
> OBTelecom: If you think the cellular networks were jammed during
> hurricane Sandy, wait until you try to make a call during a hypefest
> event like a "Dangerous Chemical Spill".
Having read FFIEC, NERC and PCI/DSS documents I can tell you that a lot
of those are wishful thinking too, particularly FFIEC and NERC. PCI/DSS
at least has some standards to which payment processors must adhere.
But banking and energy - in essence all they have to do is log it.
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:36:51 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Google Maps is not blocking Windows Phone, Google says
Message-ID: <p0624081bcd0e22e6cfc4@[10.0.1.2]>
Google Maps is not blocking Windows Phone, Google says
By Salvador Rodriguez
January 4, 2013
Google is denying reports online Friday that say the company started
blocking Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps amid tension
in its relationship with Microsoft.
Nothing has changed with the Google Maps service, the company told
The Times. Google Maps simply was never designed to work with the
Internet Explorer browser on the Windows Phone, according to Google.
The company's specific technical explanation: "The mobile Web version
of Google Maps is optimized for WebKit browsers such as Chrome and
Safari. However, since Internet Explorer is not a WebKit browser,
Windows Phone devices are not able to access Google Maps for the
mobile Web."
...
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-maps-windows-phone-not-blocking-20130104,0,5808027.story
Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:26:31 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: An iphone lover's confession
Message-ID: <kca9ao$jbf$1@dont-email.me>
An iPhone Lover's Confession: I Switched To the Nexus 4. Completely.
Ralf Rottmann - 24100
Over the past few years I've invested a lot into Apple's products and
services.
If you come by my house, you'd find four of the latest Apple TVs, two
iMacs, the latest MacBook Air, a MacBook Pro, more than five AirPort
Express stations and Apple's Time Capsule. You could touch every single
iPhone, from the first up to the iPhone 5, iPads ranging from first
generation to fourth and we recently added two iPad minis.
http://gizmodo.com/5973073/an-iphone-lovers-confession-i-switched-to-the-nexus-4-completely
-or-
http://goo.gl/aCRHR
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 15:12:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Verizon Announces End of 900 Number Billing
Message-ID: <1357427530.94190.YahooMailClassic@web121905.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:50:36 -0800 John Reiser wrote:
> Please quantify. Can the billed charge be as low as 0.30 euro?
> What do you believe was the US minimum: 2 dollars?
Since I've only used a 1-900 about twice in my life (to call tech
support for one thing or another) I can't speak to all 1-900 calling.
But this I seem to remember: that 1-900 calls could be flat rate
i.e. perhaps 50 cents flat rate for the entire call such as to call
the time (1-900-310-TIME) or a per minute rate which could cost many
dollars per minute to call one of the numerous sex lines which
migrated from the "976" space.
As I recall the 0900 numbers in the Netherlands; the numbers that I saw
were always X Eurocents per minute and depending on what you were
calling the rate varied from 15 Eurocents upward. I just resented
paying anything for 0900 calls to a business (such as an airline to
which I'd paid several hundred dollars for passage) and expecting me
to contribute to their welfare by dialing a premium number to which
they shared the revenue with the telecom provider.
***** Moderator's Note *****
It may be that the 0900 numbers are being used to screen out "the
buyers from the spyers": if a customer is wiling to pay a fee to call
a reservation center, then the odds are that (s)he thinks it is a
minor fee compared to the fare for the flight.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:01:47 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Vast cache of Kaiser patient details was kept in private home
Message-ID: <p06240813cd0e1a98dd46@[10.0.1.2]>
Vast cache of Kaiser patient details was kept in private home
The case of Kaiser and Sure File Filing Systems underscores how
patient information remains vulnerable in the hands of healthcare
providers and outside contractors.
By Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times
January 5, 2013
Federal and state officials are investigating whether healthcare
giant Kaiser Permanente violated patient privacy in its work with an
Indio couple who stored nearly 300,000 confidential hospital records
for the company.
The California Department of Public Health has already determined
that Kaiser "failed to safeguard all patients' medical records" at
one Southern California hospital by giving files to Stephan and Liza
Dean for about seven months without a contract. The couple's document
storage firm kept those patient records at a warehouse in Indio that
they shared with another man's party rental business and his Ford
Mustang until 2010.
Until this week, the Deans also had emails from Kaiser and other
files listing thousands of patients' names, Social Security numbers,
dates of birth and treatment information stored on their home
computers.
...
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-kaiser-patient-privacy-20130105,0,5688028,full.story
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 15:51:50 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Who Owns Your Digital Life?
Message-ID: <p0624082ccd0e42933c55@[10.0.1.2]>
Who Owns Your Digital Life?
Online privacy changes and Instagram. Who owns your digital life?
On Point with Tom Ashbrook
December 20, 2012
Wild uproar this week in the world of Instagram - the digital
photo-sharing app that's had a hundred million users flooding
smartphones with snapshots of their breakfast, their kids, their
boyfriend's new haircut. On Monday, Instagram - the overnight
sensation that Facebook bought for a billion dollars - announced a
change in terms of service.
And it looked like they were going to let advertisers slap your
photos into any ad they wanted. Like they owned your face. Your
kid's. Your photo life. Insta-world went nuts.
This hour, On Point: the Instagram uproar, and who owns your
digital life.
-Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the
Technology channel.
Justin Brookman, director for Center for Democracy and Technology's
Project on Consumer Privacy.
Richard Koci Hernandez, an Emmy-winning photographer and assistant
professor at the Berkeley School of Journalism.
http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/12/20/digital-life
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2013 13:13:02 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: ConnecTV is bringing ads to TV viewers' mobile devices
Message-ID: <p06240816cd0e1d828c27@[10.0.1.2]>
ConnecTV is bringing ads to TV viewers' mobile devices
When the Ad Sync technology recognizes a commercial, actor or key
term on television, it can deliver a related ad to the smartphones
and tablet computers in the room.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times
January 4, 2013
A technology company whose iPad and computer application seeks to
make television viewing more "social" is working to make TV
commercials more interactive too.
ConnecTV is launching a new type of advertising network that will
enable brands to enhance their television commercials by delivering a
second-screen experience to smartphones and tablets. The Ad Sync
technology recognizes the spot airing on TV - say, an ad for "The
Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" - then delivers information to the
portable devices in the room about the nearest theaters screening the
movie.
A feature called TV Words allows advertisers to buy key terms - much
as brands do now with Internet search through Google Inc.'s AdWords.
Anytime a particular name or phrase is spoken on television, a
related ad would pop up on a smartphone, tablet or computer running
ConnecTV's free app (or other apps that are part of the network).
...
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-connectv-20130104,0,7034239.story
***** Moderator's Note *****
Is this another CueCat?
Bill Horne
Moderator
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