Wireless phone headsets insecure
Well, duh!
Wireless phone headsets of the kind beloved by Wall Street executives and high-end law firms can be bugged by simple off-the-shelf radio scanners unless they are encrypted.
“These guys are bugging their own office, essentially,” security consultant Doug Shields told United Press International.
He said that, for a recent client, he had used an inexpensive commercial scanner capable of monitoring frequencies in the 900 MHz and 1.2 GHz ranges, which is where many of the popular hands-free headsets operate.
He said the scanner could hear conversations inside buildings as far as 600 feet away. “Sometimes, when the other party has hung up, the wireless connection remains open and you can hear what (the party at your end) is saying afterwards…”
Jack Johnson, former chief security officer for the Department of Homeland Security…told UPI that, in general when it came to new technology, “ease -of-use considerations tend to trump security.”
“It’s not until after the technologies are in use that we realize the vulnerabilities,” he said.
All together, now: “There is no patch for stupidity!”
Posted: Tue - February 5, 2008 at 06:24 AM