Taliban tapping into British cell phones

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 22 (UPI) — British soldiers in Afghanistan have been barred from using cell phones because the Taliban have been tapping into them and making prank calls to their families.

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Intelligence agents said that much of the tapping is being done in Pakistan and said that the Taliban may be getting help from Iran with telephone intercepts.

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Italian GSM provider warns: too many wiretaps

The Italian mobile operator TIM, one of the largest mobile phone companies in Italy has issued a unique warning that the number of wiretaps has reached the limit. In a fax sent to all Italian public prosecutors they say that they have already over-stretched their capacity from 5.000 to 7.000 simultaneously intercepted mobile phones. New requests now have to be processed on a ‘first come first serve’ basis, they write.

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Not so Smart: Denying capability to wiretap GSM phones

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What TXTPower is justified to rant about is the manner by which the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines wiretapped these two officials purportedly with assistance from moles inside Smart Communications. Doble’s statements betray the inability of at least one telco to jealously guard the privacy of its subscribers.

Smart expectedly denied any role in the Hello Garci wiretapping.

Smart says it cannot fathom how wiretapping could be done. Such explanation is stupid and insults the public.

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Doble: ‘Hello Garci’ wiretap ops done through Smart mole

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Asked if the telecom management knew about the wiretapping, Doble said in Filipino that, “Agents conduct what we call spotting. They look for people they can recruit. That’s how it starts. Agents study the people whom they can approach, what their weaknesses are, what they like, where they live. Weak points are identified.”

However, Doble said it was possible that the owners of Smart Communications did not know that wiretapping had been conducted through its technology or personnel.

“Maybe [the owners don’t know] … we just need a technical [employee] in Smart,” Doble said.

He said the implications of the wiretapping operations were far-reaching. “Walang imposible basta tinarget kayo, asahan niyo na yun (Nothing’s impossible as long as you’re a target, expect to be wiretapped.”

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Cell phone security has at least one flaw: People

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For example, the Symbian operating system for mobile phones is “fairly secure,” F-Secure security expert Patrik Runald said last week. Yet security is a problem.

“All the malware we’ve seen so far relies on the user installing it themselves, bypassing three to four security warnings. So there hasn’t really been a flaw in the operating system,” he said.

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Smart denies it helped wiretap Arroyo

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The telecom giant, the cellular service provider of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., doesn’t have the “highly restricted equipment” needed to conduct even a court-sanctioned wiretapping operation, according to Smart corporate communications chief Ramon Isberto.

Isberto issued a denial shortly after former Technical Sergeant Vidal Doble, who used to be with the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), told reporters that ISAFP had “somebody from Smart” to help spy on both administration and administration personalities in the 2004 elections.

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SMiShing, Battery Draining and SMS Interception – Three New Attacks Threaten Mobile Phones

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Historically, it has been considered overkill to have anti-virus software running on mobile phones but that may change in the not too distant future as more and more threats emerge. In the meantime, it pays to be vigilant and to remember that your mobile is really a mini-computer and may be susceptible to the same kind of threat and socially engineered exploits that can compromise your personal security in much the same way as they can on your PC.

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VoIP Vandals

LAS VEGAS – Internet telephone services like Skype and Vonage are starting to look less like digital gimmicks and more like the next generation of voice communication. They’re cheaper than traditional phone services and increasingly fast and reliable. But they may also be far more hackable.

Security professionals at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas spent Wednesday outlining the exploitable vulnerabilities in voice over Internet protocol technology, or VoIP. In a series of presentations, they demonstrated ways in which cybercriminals can eavesdrop on VoIP calls, steal data from Internet telephony devices, intercept credit card numbers from VoIP connections and shut connections down altogether.

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Intervenciones telefónicas, sin control (Spanish)

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“Todo el mundo escucha a todo el mundo”, dice Ricardo Marroquín Rosada, ex jefe de la Secretaría de Asuntos Administrativos y de Seguridad de la Presidencia (SAAS), cuando habla de las escuchas telefónicas, una actividad difícil de detectar y que en el país es poco controlada por parte del Estado, pese a que el único que puede autorizarlas es un juez.

Según Marroquín, esta práctica, que durante el conflicto armado interno fue ejecutada por el Estado para vigilar a opositores políticos y líderes de opinión, se ha globalizado, y los aparatos utilizados se venden sin ningún problema.

En Internet, los equipos para intervenir llamadas y hacer espionaje telefónico cuestan entre Q5 mil y Q10 mil. La página http://www.sosespias.com ofrece incluso productos de contraespionaje, con los que se puede establecer si alguien es blanco de escuchas.

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Nokia E61i: A Quick Tour

“It’s what computers have become…”

That’s actually the tag line for Nokia’s flagship multimedia smartphone, the N95 — but boy, does it ever apply to the Eseries as well! I’ve stayed up all night long tinkering with my brand-new E61i, and while it’s maybe too soon for a final verdict so far it looks like my snazzy new handset combines the best features of my BlackBerry and former TyTN, with a little bit of hiptop ease-of-use thrown in for good measure.

Here’s what I’ve discovered so far…

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