CEL_tic

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   8-14-95. NYPaper:


   "Israelis and Others Feel the Sting of a Cellur Phone Bug."

      A software bug inside the Alpha digital phone of
      Motorola has demonstrated an area of vulnerability in
      the growing web of digital communications systems -- and
      prompted Motorola to issue a worldwide recall. Motorola
      wound up asking 150,000 Alpha users in six countries to
      return the phones to have the software changed. The
      Alpha adheres to an emerging standard for digital
      cellular telephones called time division multiple
      access, or T.D.M.A. The bug caused the phone to lock on
      to one channel and stay there indefinitely.

      "There are tremendous risks as soon as you put something
      in software," said Peter Neumann, a computer security
      specialist with SRI International. The cellular industry
      "has foisted a disastrously insecure technology on the
      public," he said.


   CEL_tic (about 7K)