How To DDoS a Federal Wiretap 112
alphadogg writes "Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say they've discovered a way to circumvent the networking technology used by law enforcement to tap phone lines in the US. The flaws they've found 'represent a serious threat to the accuracy and completeness of wiretap records used for both criminal investigation and as evidence in trial,' the researchers say in their paper, set to be presented Thursday at a computer security conference in Chicago. Following up on earlier work on evading analog wiretap devices called loop extenders, the Penn researchers took a deep look at the newer technical standards used to enable wiretapping on telecommunication switches. They found that while these newer devices probably don't suffer from many of the bugs they'd found in the loop extender world, they do introduce new flaws. In fact, wiretaps could probably be rendered useless if the connection between the switches and law enforcement are overwhelmed with useless data, something known as a denial of service (DOS) attack."
In Soviet russia... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, seriously? Overwhelm the signal to noise ratio and picking out the useful information becomes harder. It's just a question of how much and how long, not to mention how long after the fact is said information useful.
Better yet, why would anyone who seriously wants to avoid a wiretap *use a phone*? It seems like discussing anything over an unencrypted medium is asking for trouble.
Stupid (Score:3, Insightful)
Why Bother Wire-tapping (Score:1, Insightful)
. . . if once you have the evidence you don't do anything with it, ala Nidal Hasan?
I know the foundations of our legal system lie stem from the formerly great British Empire, but there's no reason why we have to follow them into becoming a pussified police state that spends more time acting like a nanny than a great power.
Re:Some background about Matt Blaze (Score:3, Insightful)
What would that signal even exist? So that law enforcement could break the law by phone and not get caught?
Re:Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Only a total retard would still think, that the point if this wiretapping is to catch criminals.
to over exagerate a bit. (Score:3, Insightful)
criminals and the terrorists deserve to be put into prison
careful thats not always a clear cut line, for instance bush considered only Christians to be citizens therefore anyone trying to overthrow Christianity, was trying to overthrow his country? Teaching science might not be too far from being considered a terrorist by many zealots (of which bush often listened to). With government listing to corporate interests and considering anything harmful to corporate profits, like breaking DRM, as theft. If this criminal/terrorist net doesn't include you yet, it could encompass many of your friends/family, isn't conspiring with known criminals and terrorists a crime? (best get off of Slashdot now, to be safe...)