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It's worth realizing that, before computerized central offices, telephone wiretapping required running physical wires. Back when Rudi Giuliani was prosecuting o
by Animats 2mo ago
It's worth realizing that, before computerized central offices, telephone wiretapping required running physical wires. Back when Rudi Giuliani was prosecuting organized time, not only did physical wires have to be run, the cops were billed for them as expensive private lines. His task force was spending about a million dollars a year with New York Telephone on wiretapping.
In one case, law enforcement didn't pay their bill, resulting in the person being wiretapped having the wiretap connection show up on their bill, blowing the case.
That resulted in the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, which mandated that central offices offer remote wiretapping. Capacity up to 1% of lines is required.
Back in the electromechanical era, the only call data that could be collected was outgoing dial pulses, using a "pen register".[1] (The one shown in Wikipedia is mine. It's a beautiful piece of antique brass telegraph technology. It records dial pulses as dashes, and has to be wound up like a clock, with a big brass key.) The Supreme Court decision allowing "pen registers" without a warrant refers to these "extremely limited" devices. That definition has been stretched and stretched by law enforcement into all non-voice data collected by telcos.
Law enforcement still wants more.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen_register https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen_register
- downrightmike 2mo ago"Back when Rudi Giuliani was prosecuting organized time" I can't even fathom he'd not be cashing checks from the mafia to go after other families. Odds are good that historians will find that he did.
- ericjmorey 2mo agoHe traded Italian organized crime for Russian organized crime.
- usumgallu 2mo ago[dead]
- arjie 2mo agoA similar story around this is the controversy around various Mumbai “encounter specialists” (a violent incident between police and gangsters is an “encounter”) and whether they were effectively hitmen for some faction of the local mob. Always thought it was quite intriguing stuff.
- dylan604 2mo ago> In one case, law enforcement didn't pay their bill, resulting in the person being wiretapped having the wiretap connection show up on their bill, blowing the case. In the fictional world of The Wire, one of the "wires" were blown when the guy checked on his mobile bill to find out his account was flagged to not be disconnected. I'm sure this was art imitating life or inspired by type of thing
- inigyou 2mo agoThe Wire is allegedly one of the more realistic crime shows in how incompetent it portrays the police.
- semiquaver 2mo agoYou’re doing my boy McNulty dirty.
- Henchman21 2mo agoAt least they’re not drinking Protestant whisky
- dylan604 2mo agoThat's the kind of thing that makes you wake up in the wrong town.
- walrus01 2mo agoThat, and the alcoholism
- newsomix9xl 2mo agoIn their defense their target was amazingly adept. Many criminals even today don't engage in basic counter measures like you see on that show. And I'd call them "dysfunctional" more than inept. Bad leadership stymied by political goals overcomes even good policing.
- leeoniya 2mo ago> The one shown in Wikipedia is mine. neat! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Pen_Register.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Pen_Regi... assuming you still have it, it wouldn't be the worst idea to update the pic to something without chromatic aberration and motion blur. the wiki pic is probably the worst of the bunch compared to others on google image search :)
- p0w3n3d 2mo agoYeah I find the phone-taken images much worse than camera-taken even despite the astonishing number of megapixels and amount of technologies promised in the phones nowadays. Sadly most people don't buy the camera because it's too expensive and you need prepare yourself to take it with you (so the most photos are taken instantly with the phone)
- Animats 2mo agoIf any legit museum, or attorney involved with Fourth Amendment issues, would like it, please contact me at nagle@animats.com. It's just sitting around. I bought it on eBay years ago, out of curiosity, and fixed it. I built a little control box to go with it, with a phone dial and a 9V battery, and found a source of paper tape and ink. So it can be demoed. If it ever is used in a court appearance or legislative testimony, that would be better than it sitting in a box.
- urbnspacecowboy 2mo ago> https : / / upload.wikimedia.org / wikipedia / commons / e / e3 / Pen_Register.jpg ? utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org & utm_campaign=index & utm_content=original I was nerd-sniped by the above link (which I've added spaces to, to keep it from being truncated) and thought "Huh, since when does Wikimedia Commons use tracker barf?" So I found the page for this image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pen_Register.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pen_Register.jpg then copied the full-size image's link... and sure enough. I guess they want to keep tabs on sites that hotlink their images and don't even practice good link hygiene.
- vaylian 2mo agoThe cost dynamics have flipped in the past decades. What we have now is "Surveillance Too Cheap to Meter" https://cacm.acm.org/practice/surveillance-too-cheap-to-meter/ https://cacm.acm.org/practice/surveillance-too-cheap-to-mete... Because storing data is cheaper and often economically more useful than not storing it.
- 20after4 2mo agoWith the price of memory skyrocketing, maybe that equation changes slightly.
- monster_truck 2mo agothe $/gb of storage is declining, which is more relevant here. The big boogeyman that noids have insisted on for the past ~30 years is that intel agencies are saving everything they can to try and decrypt it later. Thankfully for us, the rate at which internet traffic grows year over year massively outpaces the global production capacity of spinning rust. The last time I did this napkin math I think the collective global production was barely enough for some small fraction (maybe 1/8th or 1/12th) of everything. It isn't exactly something that can be done in secret. Everyone else has to buy hard drives too, there are only so many sources of raw materials, places that can refine them, etc E: I think the most relevant thing to avoid if this is a concern for you would be commercial VPNs. There's a reason fiveeyes doesn't want them to be banned. They can almost assuredly save piles of money by simply coercing providers into allowing them physical access to leverage side channel attacks
- xhkkffbf 2mo agoDeclining? Not when I try to price out 10tb drives. I'm sure the economics will catch up eventually, but anyone shopping for hard drives is getting a shock.
- monster_truck 2mo agoIt's 2026 dude, buy the 28tb drives.
- TZubiri 2mo ago>using a "pen register".[1] (The one shown in Wikipedia is mine. Any idea of museums that may hold historical pen registers (or paraphernalia) for public viewing?
- Animats 2mo agoThere's one in Tempe, AZ that has a 1980s "Dialed digit recorder", but that's a much later microprocessor controlled unit. The mechanism is that of a "Morse inker", a recorder used to receive telegraph signals. Here's one that's part of a Siemens telegraph set from 1862 or so.[1] The wiretapping version is the receive part of a telegraph set made portable in a nice wooden box with a carrying handle. All this shows how rare wiretapping once was. Law enforcement had to use repurposed antique telegraph equipment. [1] https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co32910/siemens-morse-inker-1862 https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co32910...