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Buggy Bugging Backfires On German Police

Posted by timothy on from the wer-spricht dept.

Alethes writes "The BBC is reporting that German police have been caught bugging cellphones at the expense of criminal suspects who found a unknown and inaccessible voicemail number listed on their bills that was being used to record calls. Telecommunications authorities said that nearly 20,000 lines were currently being tapped."

11 of 270 comments (clear)

  1. hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    what's the German translation for "Do'h!"

    1. Re:hmmm... by Havokmon · · Score: 5, Funny
      what's the German translation for "Do'h!"

      Remember Wolfenstein?

      Halt!
      Kommentein!
      Aus Pass?
      Vonsaff!
      You panic and run into a wall:
      ###BERRP!###BERRP!###BERRP!###BERRP!###BERRP!

      Ok, so I KNOW the Vonsaff is wrong..

      --
      "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
    2. Re:hmmm... by Dr.+Awktagon · · Score: 5, Funny

      I believe it's roughly:

      Scheißetwaswirklichschlechtesgeschehenundesüberras chtemichgroß

      Used in a sentence:

      Mein Automobil ist defekt. Scheißetwaswirklichschlechtesgeschehenundesüberras chtemichgroß!!!

      (sorry about slashdot breaking the word in two. They obviously have no respect for the German language.)

  2. Great by (H)olyGeekboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now they've given Ashcroft an idea to both monitor possible terrorists AND increase revenue for the US govertment...

    Record all of their conversations in voicemails, then charge them for the priviledge. Go Patriot Act! :)

  3. inaccessable? Can you say war-dialing? by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Inaccessable? Most voice-mail systems use a 5-digit password. Most of the paswords are simple, such as "1-2-3-4-5" (many detectives from the Montreal Urban Police, for example).

    Hacking most voicemail boxes is so simple because of the simple password.

    Not to mention war-dialing the number trying all possible passwords from a land line.

  4. Coming to a town near you by WankersRevenge · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a something related to chew on . . . especially after last nights election results.

    "A little-known amendment in the Senate version of the bill makes it much easier for ISPs to disclose e-mail communications without being served with a warrant, which had been prohibited before the Patriot Act of 2001." - wired

    Check it here

  5. Re:It is too bad that this did not happen in Engla by AftanGustur · · Score: 5, Informative
    If it had happened in England the subject could have been, "Buggy Bugging Backfires On British Bobbies."

    Unfortunately, no

    It is illegal for the UK media to report on incidents that involve national security.

    Yeah, yeah, laugh as you want, you can even claim that it's rediculeus to claim it has anything to do with national security, laugh while you still have the right..

    --
    echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
  6. Worth Pointing Out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    This article from 1998 indicated that Germany has had suspected criminals under surveillance for quite some time. So this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. In fact, it was said that several nations in the EU had similar policies in that article. If that is true, then this isn't a good time to be a civil libertarian. Big Brother is watching quite a few of us.

    Now here's something to think about: These German police who conducted this were up so sloppy that the bugging information showed up on phone bills. So: how many governments are doing this the right way (i.e. without the public's knowledge?)

  7. Billable wiretaps in New York by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Something like this happened in the US about a decade ago, in New York, and it's one of the reasons the FBI pushed CALEA through.

    The New York office of the FBI was wiretapping various Mafia types (with some success; they eventually broke the New York Mafia). The taps were done by New York Telephone, and were implemented by ordering a remote extension from the circuit to be tapped to an FBI office. This was a billable service, and it wasn't cheap; the total costs of all those circuits were a strain on the FBI budget.

    One month, the FBI didn't pay the bill for one of their "extensions". The billing software then started billing the other party on the line, the person being wiretapped. Big embarassment.

    This was part of the motivation behind CALEA. Not only did it hurt the investigation, but it embarassed the FBI. (The FBI is very thin-skinned. "Don't embarass the Bureau" started with Hoover and lives on.)

    All this is in one of the books about how the FBI took down the New York Mafia, but I don't have the cite.

  8. How would the German police respond? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe the German police would say something like:

    "Das cellphones ist nicht usen fur trakken das badfolken. Das policen ist nicht snoopen das folken a la 3rd Reich. Relaxen und watchen das bills increasen. And Kwitchurbelliaken."

  9. But don't worry... by Puk · · Score: 5, Funny

    The US government/law enforcement/intelligence agencies would never use their powers to spy on people. Aren't you a PATRIOT?

    -Puk