Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Cellular eavesdropping in the press Message-ID: Date: 10 Apr 89 20:14:20 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 37 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 132, message 2 of 3 The following item appeared in RISKS Digest V8 #52 and is of interest to Telecom and Hams. Please note there is no mention of the ECPA in this, except fo a slight allusion to it at the end. Also note that the equipment being used is not a high-end 800 MHz-coverage scanner, but a simple TV audio tuner or radio. Obviously a continuous-tuned TV will work as well. (Maybe the bandwidth on this simpler equipment is wide enough that the listeners get multiple cellular frequencies without retuning, and therefore are not impeded by the frequency-hopping during handoffs within conversations? That would mean this low-tech method was actually better for surreptitious eavesdropping than using more sophisticated equipment. Certainly makes fools of the scanner manufacturers who program out cellular coverage!) -- Will Martin ***Begin included item*** Date: Fri, 07 Apr 89 20:27:24 -0400 From: denbeste@BBN.COM Subject: Cellular telephones >From the 4/7/89 Boston Globe: "Some Bostonians are having the time of their lives eavesdropping on Nynex Mobile Communications cellular phones. With the help of their trusty Radio Shack Portavision 55s, designed to pick up the audio portion of UHF television signals, these naughty people claim to have heard Secretary of Finance and Administration Edward Lashman discussing a press conference with his wife and Boston Mayor Ray Flynn checking in with his office. "It makes for a great day," says one listener who calls in sick at his job to spend the day with his ear pressed against the radio. "At 7 a.m. you hear the construction people complaining that their suppliers delivered the wrong stuff. At 9, it's the lawyers telling their clients how to lie in court. After noon the risque stuff starts..." The article goes on to say that Radio Shack no longer sells that model, and that the FCC says such eavesdropping is illegal. Steven C. Den Beste, BBN Communications Corp., Cambridge MA ***End of item***