Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Phone system bugged? 3

Status
Not open for further replies.

DickMorris

Technical User
Jan 22, 2014
21
US
Is there anyway to know if your phone system is being bugged? It's my understanding that there are devices that can detect if there is a transmitter in a room, in a phone or a clock or above a cieling tile...
Is there a way to determine if someone is tapping your phone lines? I'm talking about T1s not analog lines.
I have an Avaya Communications Manager. The majority of phones are digital. 6408s and 6416s.
 
Guess that depends on who's doing the bugging! And WHY!

There are devices that can tap T1 circuits and record conversations (the most common supplier being Sangoma). If it's your company doing it for quality and security reasons, then there isn't much you can do about it. The equipment to do all this will generally be co-located with the rest of the telecom equipment or in the IT cabinets.

The other problem is if it's the government (Police, Homeland. DEA, Customs etc) doing it then it will all be done from offsite at the Telco end and there's no way you would know about it. Besides, most of those agencies require warrants to do it......provided your in the US.

If you're worried about bugging devices being planted in rooms to pick up audio, there are hundreds of bug detectors available out there.....just google "bug detectors".

I'm sure we're all curious as to why you're asking. LOL
 
No specific threat at this time. :) Just wan to to be in front of this rather than trying to play catch-up if it should arise.
 
Bugs on analog lines can *sometimes* be detected. Bugs on digital lines are impossible to detect.

The FISA court that was created just to deal with this this type of scenario has been bypasses for "security" reasons despite the fact the court, records, and judges are all secret.

Even optical lines can be detected. A Whistle Blower describes how AT&T had splitters installed on their OC ciscuits and the taps led to a secret locked room.

All of the digital types of taps cannot be definition only related to a given "line" = all traffic on all channels of the digital circuits would be available to the tapper.

Given the subsequent information revealed via "wiki=leaks" it is a virtual certainty that all international calls are being "collected" though the NSA "promises" they only look at "relevant" calls. They are building a huge data center so they can archive all this data for indefinite periods of time. At any time they can decide some phone number is "relevant" and then pull up the data.

Our government is indeed out of control and this needs to change. Personally I am far more concerned about my calls being monitored without proper judicial supervision than Terrorism. Terrorism can be fought without interfering with our rights.

-------------------------------------------

TIP: If you ask a better question, you will get a better reply. Be specific so we can help!
 
Be happy you only have to deal with the NSA, I think in 90% of the rest of the world the stuation is far worse although 99% of the people isn't aware of it or just ignore it.
 
There are secure phones you can buy which encrypt the conversation between two secure phones which exchange secure keys. But these would in no way secure the rooms in which they are being used.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
 
Here is some un-or interesting reading and examples of secure telecoms devices /environments , in the UK this security risk is called tempest in a military environment , I once worked on a military tempest test centre where there was a dumb terminal behind a screen , the "tester" asked me to go behind the screen and type something random ... think I was being clever I typed "something random" now Mr tester laughed and said not to take things literally , basically he had used some detection equipment to grab the electronic signals generated on the keyboard and they showed up on his display clever stuff !!





APSS (SME)
ACSS (SME)
ACIS (UC)
 
Learn Klingon and hold your conversation in that, but then on the other hand all the Geeks would understand it and would not even need a translator, LOL.
There is the "BlackPhone" that encrypts your conversation and then there was the hacker congress defcon that broke into it in 5 minutes :)
A former employer once told me that you should never under any circumstances discuss anything that you don't want the world to know on the phone or via fax (1985 long time ago before email was so popular) or write down in any form.

Joe W.

FHandw, ACSS (SME), ACIS (SME)


“This is the end of the world, make sure to buy your T-shirt before it is too late"
Original expression of my daughter
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top