More on ISDN Features

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

This is from UK Crypto, where the ISDN-snoop part of the EuroParl 
report on technologies for political control was cited and asked if true. 
Perhaps Jim Choate, Steve Schear and others might clarify.

Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 00:09:40 +0000
To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
From: John Brooks <jbrooks@peeras.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [vin@shore.net: EuroParl Report - NSA, Crypto, Liberty & Trade]

   >A draft ("consultation version") of a report by the European
   >Parliament's Office for Scientific and Technological Option Assessment
   >(STOA) entitled "AN APPRAISAL OF TECHNOLOGIES OF POLITICAL 
   >CONTROL" has been submitted to the EuroParl's Civil Liberties and 
   >Interior Committee.

But this is all (or 99 percent) complete bollocks.

   >"[...] Some systems even lend themselves to a dual role as a national
   >interceptions network.

???

   > For example the message switching system used on digital 
   >exchanges like System X in the UK supports an Integrated
   >Services Digital Network (ISDN) Protocol. This allows digital
   >devices, e.g. fax to share the system with existing lines. The ISDN
   >subset is defined in their documents as "Signalling CCITT1-series
   >interface for ISDN access". 

I think this means I series - which are all public docs...

   >What is not widely known is that built in to the international CCITT 
   >protocol is the ability to take phones 'off hook' 
 
Yes - ok.  If you have a delinquent ISDN switch AND the totalitarian
state wants to bug you AND YOU choose to use a handset which 
DOES NOT break the analogue path between the microphone and 
the ISDN NTU / TA (all standard analogue phones break the circuit, 
AFAIK.  It's only the speakerphone gadgets that could be subverted.) 
Then I suppose this is possible.  But who gives a s**t about the .1% 
of vulnerable phones. And it would be dead easy to mod them to 
defeat any such attempt.  There are loads of easier ways to mount 
covert surveillance than screwing up the phone system!

   >and listen into conversations occurring near the phone,
   >without the user being aware that it is happening."

ISDN is NOT a 'message switching protocol', and there is none as such 
on Sys X and Y, which use SS7 for inter-switch signalling anyway.  The 
ISDN interfaces and service are only defined for the ends of various types 
of subscriber line, as far as I remember.  What happens inside the provider
network is up to the provider and is not ISDN.

I'm much more concerned about the Echelon system which was (finally)
reported in the Sunday Telegraph just before Xmas.  This system, it is
alleged, can intercept and look for keywords in ALL international comms
traffic.  I believe this also gets a mention in the Europarliament report.

Vote early and often for freely available strong encryption!!
(whatever JR mutters about 'doing him out of his livelihood' :=)  )

Key escrow is another example of complete bollocks, IMHO.

Cheers

-jb

-- 
John Brooks  -  Consultant in Data Communications, Networking and Energy Systems
South Croydon, 7,CR2 7HN, UK Tel: (44) 181 681 1595 Fax: (44) 181 649 7536
The opinions expressed here are mine but are not offered as professional advice.

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BTW, provocative commentary on the EuroParl report by Vin McLellan, 
which is the source of the UK Crypto thread, is available at:

   http://jya.com/nsa-etc-nf.htm