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Guide to DIY Wiretapping
Geeks are Sexy writes "ITSecurity.com has a nice piece this week on how wiretapping works and how you can protect yourself from people who wants to snoop into your life. From the article 'Even if you aren't involved in a criminal case or illegal operation, it's incredibly easy to set up a wiretap or surveillance system on any type of phone. Don't be surprised to learn that virtually anyone could be spying on you for any reason.'" Maybe I'm on the wrong track here, but I guess I assumed that wiretapping now happened in secret rooms at the telco, and not by affixing something physically to a wire in your home, but I'll definitely be aware next time I hear a stranger breathing next time I'm stuck on hold.
The 80s called and their want their wiretapping tech back.
This is great if you're worried about the neighbor kid listening in, but not for anyone serious. Wiretapping is done at the telco level and you can't tell you're being tapped. In the digital age there is no clicking, breathing, voltage drops or any other indication. There is a big long checklist when implementing a CALEA node for making certain there is no way the target can tell they're being monitored.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
The "professional" wiretap uses a buttset. These have bed-of-nails clips for monitoring without leaving any particularly obvious traces (a small hole is made through the sheath of the wire, that is all, no cutting or stripping is involved).
They also have both a regular and monitor mode. The regular mode makes it work like a normal telephone, with about 600 Ohms impedance, causing a voltage drop. The monitor mode has 100+ kOhms impedance, which will cause a voltage drop low enough to be indistinguishable from a moisture leak (happens all the time on analog phone lines).
Here's a nice one you can buy right now!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".