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Tapping POTS phones was hilariously easy. There was also an even easier time when anyone with a 47MHz tuner could hear people read out credit card numbers over
by astrodust 10y ago
Tapping POTS phones was hilariously easy.
There was also an even easier time when anyone with a 47MHz tuner could hear people read out credit card numbers over the air with their cordless phones. It would happen at least once an hour in any busy neighborhood.
- tyingq 10y agoThe pre-cdma and pre-gsm AMPS cell phones were pretty easy to eavesdrop on as well. https://www.wired.com/1993/04/phreaks/ https://www.wired.com/1993/04/phreaks/ Ctrl-F and search for OKI 900. A normal commercial cell phone, but usable as a cell phone conversation scanner, out of the box.
- emersonrsantos 10y ago> The pre-cdma and pre-gsm AMPS cell phones were pretty easy to eavesdrop on as well. While waiting in the car for someone, my friend changed his Motorola StarTac to engineering mode and then proceeded to search channels until finding something interesting to listen.
- astrodust 10y agoNot only was there various test modes for handsets, but older tuners would easily access the bands used for analog cellular communication. These bands used to be used for UFH range used for analog television until those upper channels were trimmed to make way for cellular. I'm sure someone with criminal intent could have made a small fortune skimming credit card numbers off the open air.
- doctorshady 10y agoBut from an architectural standpoint, unencrypted data over an analog pair or over a TDM (basically, time multiplexed serial PCM streams; what the phone network uses for internal transport) network is probably better off than ethernet, seeing as anybody can say they're your MAC address even if they're not physically connected to your circuit.