Phone Taps Just Got Impossible

strategypage.com ^ | 4/12/06 | James Dunnigan

[Centurion2000]

bump

[AFreeBird]

There is no way to conventially tap a VOIP call that never touches the phone system. Warrant or no, it would have to be intercepted and decrypted.

Umm sure there is. IF you're on dial-up or DSL, then they put equipment in the CO, if you're on cable, then they put equipment at the nodes. And while you are in effect creating a virtual connection to the recieving computer, it is still running through the backbone which in turn is connected to switches. Eitherway, they CAN intercept the datastreams. Decrypting is another matter.

[steve86]

Re: Skype's encryption (download .pdf):

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/3375

[MediaMole]

My point was that there isn't some central office where they can turn a switch and the Feds can easily listen to the otherwise encrypted audio with no delay.

[discostu]

Just because it's illegal in those regimes doesn't mean the disidents won't use it, just being a dissident in those areas is usually illegal and that hasn't stopped them. Meanwhile with the encryption they'll have more secure communication methods that will help them.

[gondramB]

"Public key PGP encryption can be broken?"


This is not my field but my understanding is that PGP is made up of 4 cryptographic elements, each of which is subject to attack and none of which is known to have been cracked.

[zeugma]

Sounds downright excellent. I'll have to download it and check it out.

[zeugma]

The right of Americans to be left alone by the government unless they are doing something illegal is fundamental to the American way of life.

Thanks. I'm getting tired of the "if you don't have something to hide" crowd. 

[zeugma]

I thought a PGP key length of 4096 was pretty much unbreakable.

It is unless you are thinking on time scales exceeding the heat-death of the universe. 

[antiRepublicrat]

There's no immediate solution for this problem, unless Phil Zimmermann has provided a back door in Zfone for the intel folks. That is unlikely, but at least possible.

No, pretty much impossible given the fact that Zimmerman is firmly on the side of privacy and is a well-known and respected cryptographer.

Still, this is nothing really new. It's an update of his old program PGPfone that let people make secure 'net phone calls before VOIP became popular.

PGP doesn't stop the police or intel people from reading encrypted email, but it does slow them down.

So we establish that the author really doesn't know what he's talking about. Depending on your configuration, yeah it'll slow them down, probably until after you die of old age. The opinion of the professional cryptographic community is that even the NSA probably does not have the resources to crack a well set-up PGP.

However, that doesn't count the use of key loggers, etc., to gain access to the passphrases or other means of circumventing PGP.

I feel so much safer now.

... from my government.

[4CJ]

I love when the 'privacy' lobby puts self-interest so far in front of common sense that they can't see beyond their smug self-satisfaction. Yes, keep our agencies from listening to our calls!

PGP allows private conversations to make it out out Communist/repressive regimes, and various other legitimate uses. Encryption protects your BANK accounts, credit cards, financial transactions with the Fed, sensitive personal data etc. As with any technology, it can be abused.

I use PGP every day. and if the government can crack multiple layers of 4096bit keys, more power to them.

[gondramB]

"Thanks. I'm getting tired of the "if you don't have something to hide" crowd. "

The government only has (or is supposed to have) the power given to it by the people. We never gave them them to right pry into or regulate every detail of our private lives without evidence we are depriving others of their rights. And therefore they do not legitmately have that power.

Now for legitimate national defense issues the government has been (appropriately) given broad powers but that does not mean that innocent people are doing something wrong by expecting privacy.

[dead]

On 911, the force that killed the most people in the terrorist attacks was gravity.

It's unfortunate that the terrorists have access to gravity, but I don't blame the guy who invented gravity for the deaths.

[tfecw]

"VOIP calls can go directly from computer to computer with no contact with to the phone grid. The call is encrypted on each end and the data going over the net is encrypted at all times.

There is no way to conventially tap a VOIP call that never touches the phone system. Warrant or no, it would have to be intercepted and decrypted."

That i didn't know, very interesting. How does Vonage (for instance) bill people? Are they just selling the interfaces on each end? Looks like I'll have to hit google when i get off work tonight.

[4CJ]

The government only has (or is supposed to have) the power given to it by the people. We never gave them them to right pry into or regulate every detail of our private lives without evidence we are depriving others of their rights. And therefore they do not legitmately have that power.

Bump. If the federal government wants to protect us, secure the BORDERS, not the airwaves.

[Wormwood]

On 911, the force that killed the most people in the terrorist attacks was gravity.

Obviously, the State should decide who falls and who floats. If not, then the Terrorists (booga booga) have won! ;-)

[ko_kyi]

How does Vonage (for instance) bill people?

You have voip to their system, which is logged, and then if they need to connect the other end via conventional phone system that is billed (to vonage) at their rates like any business call. Or so I imagine.

[steve86]

How does Vonage (for instance) bill people? Are they just selling the interfaces on each end?

VoIP calls are routed through the vendor's equipment. In my case, for example, if Packet-8 servers are down, my VoIP is down.

[rzeznikj at stout]

Good point!

So now the government should restrict the export of gravity to known rogue nations... /sarc

8^)

[AmishDude]

Maybe P=NP but the government is just not telling us.