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Secure Voice Communications While Travelling?

Posted by Cliff on from the thwarting-eavesdroppers-everywhere dept.

captnitro asks: "My father works for the US Dept of Commerce in the Eastern Bloc. His hotel room phones are routinely bugged -- a few (former) coworkers have had their stays 'shortened' and politely asked to leave the country, when they said dumb things over the phone. A few days ago he asked me what I use for secure voice when I don't have broadband. Remembering PGPfone from a while back, I looked up the link, but apparently they're no longer supporting/distributing it. While I wouldn't recommend he say much of anything in a bugged room, it got me thinking -- what do *you* use for simple, no-nonsense (requiring modem + sound card), low-bandwidth secure voice app? Unix works, and scriptability gets geek points, but I'll take what I can get."

7 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. If the phones are bugged by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Wouldn't there be a chance the walls are as well?

    Maybe speaking in a special way interchanging important words and phrases for nonsensical words and phrases or using voice inflections or a predetermined voice signals could help bypass that. We could call this a "code"...

  2. bad idea by Asgard · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you are in a foreign country and the state agencies are bugging your calls, you better be darn sure of what their crypto laws say because you might get arrested for spying if you break them.

  3. Tempest and laptops by metalhed77 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm almost certain that tempest can't read laptop screens, which I assume the man is question uses as he is a traveler.

    --
    Photos.
    1. Re:Tempest and laptops by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 2, Informative
      Even if Tempest can't /. has already covered reading a screen from the flickering light.

      Trouble is, LCDs don't flicker significantly; only CRTs (the persistence of phosphors is really quite tiny.)

      Still, the scan circuitry for LCDs can in some cases be electromagnetically sniffed and the picture recovered. More carefully designed circuitry may not have this problem though.

      --

      -WolfWithoutAClause

      "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  4. speakfree by zcat_NZ · · Score: 3, Informative

    speak freely is a Free program for Windows and *nix. It supports strong encryption (by default) and is very light on bandwidth. It works more like a walkie-talkie than a phone though.

    Or you could just send GPG-encrypted emails..

    --
    455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
  5. PGPfone is still available by SiMac · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the PGPi website, including the source.

    Might not work on newer hardware, but it's still available.

  6. Sorry, Speakfree scheduled to be End-of-Life'd by cmehta1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Simple Announcement on the page is:
    On January 15th, 2004, Speak Freely will be discontinued and removed from this Web site. Existing users may continue to use the program as long as they wish, but no further releases will be forthcoming. For details and the reasons why Speak Freely is being discontinued, please see the full end of life announcement.

    Full annoucement at:
    http://www.fourmilab.ch/speakfree/eol/