ip: Disposable phones--a security risk?

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 23:39:20 -0500
To: believer at telepath.com
From: believer at telepath.com (by way of believer at telepath.com)
Subject: ip: Disposable phones--a security risk?

http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5097046,00.html?chkpt=zdnnp1tp02

 Disposable phones--a security risk?

 <#talkback>TalkBack! By <'mailto:ben_charny at zdnet.com'>Ben Charny
 September 17, 2001 5:15 PM PT

   Hop-On Wireless Chief Executive Peter Michaels and the rest of the
nascent disposable cell phone industry are scrambling to defend a product
that hasn't made it into the United States yet, but is a target of the
nation's top crime fighters as they crack down on terrorism.

 During the weekend, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director
Robert Mueller indicated that disposable phones are one of the reasons they
want to give the U.S. law enforcement community more legal power to fight
terrorism, using techniques such as tapping phones.

 Disposable cell phones come pre-loaded with a finite number of calling
minutes, and are meant to be used, then tossed in the trash. The phones
themselves are stripped-down versions of their more expensive
brethren--offering in the case of some phones just the ability to make a
single phone call. Voice mail and other amenities standard for most
wireless phones are not part of the disposable phone's package of services.

 Whether disposable phones were used to help orchestrate Tuesday's attack
on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center hasn't been made public. But the
mere mention of them in connection with the Tuesday attacks has the
industry scrambling to explain the safeguards that retail outlets like
Target, Kmart and 7-Eleven might be taking in mid-October when they begin
selling these phones.

 Ashcroft thinks law enforcement officials should be able to eavesdrop on
any phone used by a suspect in a foreign intelligence case, even without a
wiretap warrant signed by a judge. The nation's most powerful law
enforcement officials then singled out disposable cell phones, saying on
the CBS television show "Face the Nation" that the current set of wiretap
regulations are useless if terrorists and criminals use these phones.

 "It simply doesn't make sense to have the surveillance authority
associated with the hardware, or with the phone, instead of the person or
the terrorist," Ashcroft said on the Sunday morning news program.

 A series of proposed laws backed by Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert
Mueller are expected to reach Capital Hill by week's end.

 Michaels said calling cards are more of a threat to U.S. security than
disposable phones.

 The phones also aren't as anonymous as Ashcroft and other government
officials think, he said. When someone buys a Hop-On phone, they are asked
to provide a name and address, ostensibly so the company can contact them
when they set up a program to recycle these devices.

 Michaels also said the phones that he sells only work in the United
States, making it impossible for a foreign terrorist to reach someone
outside the country.

 Also, calls made from these phones can be tracked through phone logs, he
said.

 "If Ashcroft said disposable phones aren't good for our country, how about
free e-mail, or calling cards?" Michaels said. "If someone really wants to
hide from the government, they will use a calling card at a pay phone."

 A representative from Dieceland Technologies, a New Jersey-based company
that has inked a distribution deal for its $10 talk-and-toss phone with GE
Capital, the investment arm of General Electric, did not return an e-mail
seeking comment.

 The phones will sell for $30 and will be offered in less than a month,
said Michaels.

 Wireless analysts like Paul Dittner, of analyst firm Gartner, think they
could catch on in the United States, but among the set of people "with poor
credit ratings, no credit histories or transient lifestyles, or people such
as seniors and vacationers who simply want to have a phone available for
emergencies."

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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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