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Russians Order Mobile Phone Encryption Removed
PenguinRadio writes "The Moscow Times is reporting that Russian security officers (The FSB, formerly the KGB) ordered all mobile phone providers to switch off their encryption systems for 24 hours, so the police could eavesdrop on all calls. An alert, either an exclamation point or an unlocked padlock, was sent to the phones in question. This is the second time such an order was given - the last time was after the hostage crisis involving Chechnya fighters in a Moscow theater. At least the Russian has the courtesy to warn all their phone users that this was going on. Not sure what the standard FBI procedure is on something like this..."
to deny, deny, deny.
...is probably to have every undercover agent in Russia drop what they're doing and man some listening devices. ;)
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The KGB unencrypts YOU!
I wonder if they care that I'm having a fight with my girlfriend and am calling your wife to make arrangements to stay over tonight.
Game... blouses.
Not sure what the standard FBI procedure is on something like this...
Isn't it obvious? They originate the signal from their secret base on the dark side of the moon, route it through ECHELON, then through the chip in your cerebellum, off the relay in the piece of fried chicken you're eating, through your computer just on general principles, then to your cell phone where it summarily cracks the encryption and displays the letters "BB." Then it kills you.
The coolest voice ever.
a) cell phone encryption turns on you! (how appropriate)
/.)
b) cell phone encryption turns you on! (only on
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
I hope Ashcroft doesn't get any ideas from this. We may wind up getting little text alerts on our cell phones when the Bill Of Rights is, and is not, in affect.
Civil Rights On....Civil Rights Off...Civil Rights On...Civil Rights Off...
"At least the Russian has the courtesy to warn all their phone users that this was going on"
Yo Al Qaeda, we'll be listening to your phone calls on September 16th from 4am to 5am. Just FYI, so go about your day as usual.
Just brilliant isn't it? Next we'll be mailing crack houses letters informing them of the raid 3 weeks later.
great! One more blasted feature on my phone the manual probably won't cover or will bury under 50,000 menu options! ... and I bet Tech Support won't know how to enable/disable it either!
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
1998 called, it wants its cell phone back.
Modern (digital) cellphones cannot be tapped with a radio. You are the weakest link, goodbye.
The Supreme Court is taking care of that....
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If you were worried, I would assume you could rig up some sort of device to record your voice
digitally which could then be encrypted if you wished, then change it into an analog signal which
would be transmitted over the cellphone. Then the receiver could have a device to recieve the
analog signal to decrypt it.
Oh wait, they already invented modems. Damn, I'm always late with these ideas.
Funny, this reminds me of a joke that a Russian friend told me...
:)
Both of us are of the age that we grew up during the Cold War and remember what it was like having nukes pointed at each other day and night...
Anyway, we were on the phone and the connection was really bad. At one point, we heard a click similar to someone picking up the phone. So, Dmitri paused and said, "Wait a second..." After a few seconds, he began to speak again and I asked what had happened. He explained that, in Russian, it is considered polite to pause the conversation when you hear the FSB changing the tapes recording your conversation.
I laughed my ass off.... Yes, people, I'm now ass-less....
"Ahhhh, best laid plans of mice and men... and Cookie Monster." -- Cookie Monster, Sesame Street
Not sure what the standard FBI procedure is on something like this...
Damn Russians. If they lived in the USA they would be treated with the respect and courtesy a country full of apathetic weekend patriots deserves. None. Our government would do something like play up the effectiveness of the crypto in protecting personal conversations and important business secrets on one hand, while ordering a no-warrant backdoor into the system with the other. Of course these secrets would become public in 20 or so years in the name of "full disclosure" to give everyone a woody about their current administration, and the typical American would fail to see how those lies of the past would have any relevance in his life that present day. Stupid Russians.. I bet they wish they were free (to be played like puppets) like us.
in soviet russia, the FSB encrypts you!
actually... that's right according to the article:)
But they kind of GRU on me.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White