Telco Networks Open to Attack?

Cally writes: "This post to NANOG summarises Dave Henderson's paper (.ppt: HTML in Google cache, grep for 'Now Really Public') from the Internetwork Interoperability Test Coordination Committee, about the state of security in the public switched (telephone) network: wide open and "very fragile with a tremendous number of vulnerabilities". Apparently, there's $12b in fraud per year, growing interest from blackhat groups, and more, better, intruder tools. We often hear talk of "information warfare attacks that could result in the draining of bank reserves and the cutting off of power sources" from budget-and-PR hungry, but clue-light, politicians and wonks these days. When an experienced engineer uses such language, it's more worrying." We've also had submissions of this AP article speculating about viruses hitting mobile phones.

Comments

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[Anonymous Coward]

this is a test
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.lameness .filter .defeater .text .in .there .i .wonder .how .many .people .will .read .this .whole .comment .I .certainly .hope .it .doesnt .annoy .too .many .people .This .is .just .the .beginning .because .PAGE .WIDENING .IS .BACK .I .like .wide .pages .I .wish .all .pages .could .be .as .wide .as .this .dont .you .wide .pages .are .much .cooler .than .those .narrow .pages .you .are .used .to .reading .because .you .dont .have .to .worry .about .the .lameness .filter .telling .you .that .you .don't .have .enough .charaters .per .line .that .really .sucks .when .that .happens .and .you .have .to .put .some .lame .lameness .filter .defeater .text .in .there .i .wonder .how .many .people .will .read .this .whole .comment .I .certainly .hope .it .doesnt .annoy .too .many .people .This .is .just .the .beginning .because .PAGE .WIDENING .IS .BACK .I .like .wide .pages .I .wish .all .pages .could .be .as .wide .as .this .dont .you .wide .pages .are .much .cooler .than .those .narrow .pages 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.doesnt .annoy .too .many .people .This .is .just .the .beginning .because .PAGE .WIDENING .IS .BACK .I .like .wide .pages .I .wish .all .pages .could .be .as .wide .as .this .dont .you .wide .pages .are .much .cooler .than .those .narrow .pages .you .are .used .to .reading .because .you .dont .have .to .worry .about .the .lameness .filter .telling .you .that .you .don't .have .enough .charaters .per .line .that .really .sucks .when .that .happens .and .you .have .to .put .some .lame .lameness .filter .defeater .text .in .there .i .wonder .how .many .people .will .read .this .whole .comment .I .certainly .hope .it .doesnt .annoy .too .many .people .This .is .just .the .beginning .because .PAGE .WIDENING .IS .BACK .I .like .wide .pages .I .wish .all .pages .could .be .as .wide .as .this .dont .you .wide .pages .are .much .cooler .than .those .narrow .pages .you .are .used .to .reading .because .you .dont .have .to .worry .about .the .lameness .filter .telling .you .tha [goatse.cx]

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how do you think the majors DOS are done unseen ?

[da5idnetlimit.com]

Simple : you infiltrate a phone router, that links you to a global communication grid, that allow you access to a few T1 that can be used to synchronously sent 'Charge Test' packets to any IP that you define. At the same time, this operation is controlled by a call issuating from a poor companys ISDN phone system that you hacked through whithin 7".

It's a shame this company is calling 500 meters from it's location, but will have a phone bill showing relays in almost every old Alcatel customers. I mean the chinese phone system is not porous. It's dead open...

Don't try in Manhattan but in remote USA the old cheese boxes still works if you want to hack i,to ATT long distance...

Heterogenous system with a LOT of Legacy Code / Hardware...

a dream...

A much better telco story...

[corebreech]

FOX News not too long ago ran a story by Carl Cameron that alleged that there was a single company responsible for doing all the billing for telephone calls throughout the United States.

In other words, one small group of people knows the phone number of every call you and I place. Supposedly an investigation was launched to determine whether the information was being used for foul purposes, but it was called off before foul play could be established.

But that isn't what is so troubling. FOX News reported this on the air, and had the story up on their web site, but it was taken down.

Why?

The company had connections to Israel.

I wish we could get past the fact that the Jews have suffered horribly, etc., and appreciate the fact that there are bad people in all denominations. There are American criminals, and Swedish criminals, and Mongolian criminals, and there are probably Israeli criminals too.

Of course, they might've taken it down because it was wrong, but why no retraction then?

Whether the phone company is losing money to hackers who use the network for free doesn't concern me as much as somebody knowing what I pay to use the network and why. Put all those phone calls into a Beowulf cluster and I gotta believe the resulting graph gives the owner quite a bit of power. And I don't care who has it, whatever the religion, race, creed, the perp needs to be run down.

Re:A much better telco story...

[leviramsey]

Rupert Murdoch has been an Israeli cheerleader for years. It's kind of ironic when you look at it in terms of the New York newspaper market: the Post is apt to be more uncritical of the Israelis than either of the two "Jewish-controlled" papers (the Times and News).

I'd agree with you...

[InterruptDescriptorT]

...if I wasn't so worried that the tariffs might help the Republicans in November. The only reason Bush did this was to secure votes in states that were in the balance (West Virginia, for example, to whom he promised these tariffs to win the state in 2000). The type of steel that WV traditional produces was one of the few types tariffed at the maximum 30%.

Up until he announced the tariffs, I was feeling pretty good about the Democrats controlling both Houses in November, but now I'm not so sure. And not that one party is that much different from the other, but do you really want Bush's judicial nominees to breeze through Senate confirmations? No way! If he had his way, all of his jurists would make it a crime to be black or poor...