The gossip around my neighborhood is that the reason a particular neighbor seems knows a lot of personal info about some of us is because he’s listening in on our phone conversations.
I use a DECT 6.0 telephone which I was told was virtually eavesdrop proof, but after doing a bit of Googling I found articles such as this:
Is it as easy as the above article makes it seem? I know the best way to not worry about it is to just use a corded phone, but if the above article is bogus (and I trust you guys ), using a cordless phone is much more convenient for me. Also, if you know of any other security steps I can take to make talking on a cordless more safe, I’d like to hear it.
I suspect that for the common layman, nothing in that article is “easy,” as you termed it. To me, “easy” is being able to buy an identical model phone, plug it in, and be able to eavesdrop, which doesn’t seem possible and isn’t indicated in the article.
I have heard phone conversations from both cell phones and cordless, without even trying. A friend and I used to have long conversations, which were occasionally interrupted by her next-door-neighbor’s long conversations. We found we could talk over the NDN, comment on her conversation to each other, all apparently without being overheard. Of course, this brought up the possibility that, at other times, NDN could hear us, and comment, etc., and we didn’t know. Kind of a sobering prospect. For about 30 seconds.
The cell phone conversation was a very private one, between a lawyer and a state lawmaker, and it came over our car radio as we drove about a block from the state capitol. My husband and I both initially thought it was interference from another radio station.
We also very occasionally picked up somebody’s phone calls–I don’t know whether it was cordless or cell–on our stereo tuner.
Except for the lawyer/lawmaker one, which we only heard a little of, none of these conversations was the least bit gossip-worthy. Although we did laugh at the neighbor, since I didn’t even really know her it doesn’t count as gossip.
I would think you mostly don’t have to worry. If someone is determined to get your conversations and has good reason to, and lots of money, they can do it, no matter how good your precautions were. The average phone is probably secure enough FGW but not for EO.
Plant some gossip and see if it turns up with your neighbour. Make up something highly gossipworthy but basically harmless about yourself, let your friends know what you are doing by some other communication method (so they aren’t alarmed) then phone them all and tell them this gossip.
Also worth pointing out - these researchers do not provide a “how to” guide as to how to break DECT. You an reasonably assume that unless someone else has replicated their work, nobody else can do it. It isn’t going to be available anytime soon, even from a shady supplier of illegal interception devices.
OTOH, many other cordless phones have little to no security at all. The very popular cheap analog corldess phones can be received with perfect clarity with any commonly available communications receiver. (Security can be as little as simply having an automatic ident code to help prevent other handsets making calls on your phone line. But actual security of the voice is nil.)
The big deal about DECT was that it was another highly vaunted encryption system that was also secret, and it fell at the usual hurdle. Secret meant no peer review, and as it turn out, flaws that provide openings for cracking. This is SOP for secret encryption algorithms. The secret is eventually reverse engineered, and the flaws found. So eventually it becomes security by obscurity, not security by science. And it fails. For DECT to fail is both embarrassing and serious. For once the only agencies that don’t care are the official ones, since they already have legal and regulated means to intercept your calls.
), using a cordless phone is much more convenient for me. Also, if you know of any other security steps I can take to make talking on a cordless more safe, I’d like to hear it.