Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: jimmy@denwa.uucp (Jim Gottlieb) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Neighbor Bugs Family By Eavesdropping Message-ID: <2199@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 15 Dec 89 19:26:03 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Jim Gottlieb Organization: Info Connections, West Los Angeles Lines: 21 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 576, message 4 of 11 In article <2058@accuvax.nwu.edu> jim@eda.com (Jim Budler) writes: >In Tom Clancy's "Clear and Present Danger" one of the intelligence >gathering methods used was intercept of cellular phone conversations >by satellites. How real was this use in a fictional story? Is it >possible. It's very real. And it's not just cellular conversations. I was rather surprised when I visited a satellite dish-owning friend and he showed me how he could listen in to _regular_ long distance telephone calls. And it didn't take any fancy equipment. I guess we can be thankful that the use of satellite for telephone calls is declining (these calls were all from Alaska to Florida), but this is just a reminder that you can never assume that ANY call is completely private. Jim Gottlieb E-Mail: or or V-Mail: (213) 551-7702 Fax: 478-3060 The-Real-Me: 824-5454