MDave Wagner, Bruce Schneier and John Kelsey presented an analysis of
CMEA at Crypto 97. CMEA is the algorithim used for alpha paging on
PCS phones. The paper is on www.counterpane.com.
Its better than nothing, (what we have now) but not unbreakable.
I'll note the irony of law enforcement being unable to get secure
radios. (There are other factors at work here, such as crypto being
hard to do right.)
Adam
Mike Tibodeau wrote:
| Has there been any hubbub about the new "safe" digital
| services (phone & pager) that are now being offered?
|
| Sprint Spectrum is the name in the WDC area. I do not
| know if other areas have similar offerings...
|
| -Mike
|
|
| At 12:40 PM 8/28/97 -0400, morrow .
long @
yale .
edu wrote:
| >With all of the current talk on the list about logging and syslog...
| >be aware that pager messages (at least those currently sent today)
| >have little privacy: they are not encrypted when sent, they are
| >often misdirected (I've received the wrong pager messages -- both
| >phone #s and alphanumeric) and there are apparently people who can
| >listen in on them...
| >
| >An AP story out of NYC today reported that 3 employees of a small Fort
| >Lee NJ news gathering service (BNN - Breaking News Network) were indicted
| >yesterday under Federal law (using the ECPA, mail fraud and conspiracy
| >statutes) for illegally intercepting pager msgs meant for top officials
| >and police in NYC.
| >
| >Apparently the NYPD has been using alphanumeric pagers for msgs
| >which were too confidential to transmit over the police radio band
| >( In some communities I've heard of police acquiring cellphones for
| >officers because of all of the active police scanners out there ).
| >
| >In NYC US Atty Mary Jo White warned that pagers and cellphones are
| >not as secure as landlines for transmitting information which should
| >be kept secret (police information which was eavesdropped on reportedly
| >provided the names and locations of top officials, crime witnesses,
| >force mobilizations and wounded police officers).
| >
| >H. Morrow Long, Yale Univ IT ISO -Info Technology Services Info Security
| Officer
| >175 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06520-8276, (203)432-1248(voice)
| 432-0593(FAX)
| >INET: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~long/ mailto:Morrow .
Long @
yale .
edu
| >PAGE: (203)370-3081, (800)347-2574, mailto:1165469 @
pager .
mcb .
com PIN#
| 1165469
| >
| >
|
--
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
-Hume
References:
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|
