Congressional cell phone security hearing

[Dan Veeneman <cypherp@decode.com>]

Hyperbole flew hot and heavy during a February 5 hearing on cellular
telephone privacy chaired by Louisiana Republican Billy Tauzin.  The
House Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer
Protection held a hearing titled "Is anybody listening?  You betcha."

Subcommittee members were shocked, just shocked to learn that,
according to a hyper-animated Thomas Wheeler (president of the
Cellular Telephone Industry Association), Americans are engaged
in "electronic stalking" of cellular telephone users.

Further details of CSPAN pandering and Ed Markey's (D-MA) Humpty Dumpty
imitation ("words mean whatever I want them to mean") elided.


Some notable moments:

Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL), during a discussion about
encryption, called PGP "a darn good program."

Jay Kitchen, head of the Personal Communications Industry Association,
related an (apocryphal?) story about MI5 requiring 2 Crays to run for
3 days to break a single GSM.


Jim Kallstrom, Assistant Director FBI and head of the New York field
office, woodenly delivered his (IMHO unfocused) testimony and reported
that on the first day of the TWA Flight 800 crash investigation he
determined that the news media knew more than they should, so he
confiscated the cell phones of the FBI agents and locked them away,
under the (reasonable) presumption that reporters were listening to
FBI cell phone calls.

Jimmy also reiterated the FBI line that their new wiretap requirements
were reasonable and necessary to protect American citizens from
terrorists.


Dan
dan@decode.com

--
cypherp@decode.com (Dan Veeneman)
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