Re: Crypto not being used where needed

[smb@research.att.com]

	 Although I sincerely agree that the data should be encrypted,
	 is it really that easy to intercept cellular phone calls? I
	 thought you had to go to considerably more effort than
	 programming a scanner to pick up these transmissions - I don't
	 know much about cellular phones, but I thought they hopped
	 frequencies and so forth such that it was a real pain to
	 listen in.

Yes, it's really easy to monitor cellular calls.  They only hop
frequencies when you move between cells -- and most cop calls will be
within a single cell, simply because most of the queries happen *after*
they've pulled someone over.

Things will change somewhat with the so-called personal communicators,
since they'll use much smaller cells -- but the basic problem is still
the same.