Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Re: Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Cody — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:27:18 -0000

Um, Jim, I'm not quite sure what my visit to Down House has to do with Richard Bejtlich's two-part report on the recent Black Hat Briefings, but thanks the for the plug!

Re: Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Jim Lippard — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 19:12:35 -0000

I agree. Attackers are way ahead of defenders in many ways (see Richard Bejtlich's two-part report on the most recent Black Hat Briefings).

Re: Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Tim Lee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:07:02 -0000

Dale: I'm glad you've been finding the audio quality more to your liking. I've been trying to watch the levels on the audio more closely, and I guess it's been helping. Please do speak up if you have any further suggestions for improving the audio quality. And thanks for listening!

Re: Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Dale B — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:29:03 -0000

The article The Athens Affair in the July IEEE Spectrum magazine has a pretty good description of the Greek cell phone tap scheme. Someone hacked into CO switch and modified the wire tap system software . It was much more complicated that this, read the article for details.

I suppose a similar attack could succeed here, but it would be tough. Still, if there is a back door and someone is determined and skilled enough, they will figure out a way use it.

BTW, Several weeks ago I complained about the lousy audio quality of the podcasts. Since the break you took a couple weeks ago, there has been a huge improvement in the audio quality. Thanks.

Re: Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Perry E. Metzger — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:27:02 -0000

I'm a security professional. My opinion is that she's right.

[Writing from a talk at the Usenix Security conference.]

Re: Susan Landau on how FISA is a “gateway for hackers”

Jim Harper — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 15:30:11 -0000

This would be a good example of (ahem) Harper's Law.