what do you think this is? /. ?

Um whats that chap they are trying to extradite ??? Yeah they might just fucked you over to prove point.

I trust that Kevin will shortly find himself shackled to the wall in a particularly damp corner of your dungeon.

400 calls cost $12,000? Did I get that right? $30 average per call?

Sounds like basic AT&T service back in the day. DHS has never heard of Skype I guess.

First their site falls to an SQL Injection attack, now their phone lines have been hacked. These people are supposed to be protecting me? (Besides, I thought phone hacking was something of the old ages, stamped out long ago...)

I think the mobile business has something to do with that whenever you have enough people interested in a subject (means there is money in it) you get this sort thing as well.

I often receive calls from overseas where the caller ID I see is a local number. This happens when the folks calling me use cheap wannabe internet telephony providers which use some cheap local setup to terminate the calls using equipment they don't know anything about. The default setup of those VoIP-to-POTS boxes seems to be such that they provide a dialtone without any PIN number set. Apparently, they never consider the possibility that somebody may call the number back and find out.

So, all you have to do is call the number back, wait for the box to pick up and give you a second dialtone, then dial any number you want and it will connect you. If you call witholding your own caller ID, they will not even be able to find out who made calls on their bill.

This is the same Government mind you that wants all of your e-mails to be archived so that they can come after you for spam and other actions for which they deem you to be accountable for. Will they hold themselves to the same standards, what will happen to those government employees responsible for this? A promotiion perhaps? It's good to see that "Homeland Security" relies on contractors that from what has been witnessed with Bushes Iraq, do not have to follow the same rules that our citizens and agents do. Im sure the contractor will never be named, heck they should be given some extra pork for this.

"If you call witholding your own caller ID, they will not even be able to find out who made calls on their bill."

NOT true.

When you withold your number it still travels the entire length of the phone system. It is only the last connection that witholds the A party number depending on whether the caller ID bit is set. Witholding your number does NOT give you any privacy except from the user of the B number.

Why do you think this is all so complicated?

Where I used to work we had a Toshiba phone system. If the voicemail answered the call you could press * during the greeting and then hear a complaint that it wasn't a recognised command. The voicemail system would then volunteer to transfer you to an extension if you knew the number.

If the system hadn't been told to deny access to an outside line at this point the person calling could simply put in a nine and access an outside line before dialing any number they want.

"Heckuva job, Brownie!"

Actually, Brownie's replacement, but I bet he's also just a second-rate horse-show manager.

@Greg Fleming: You're kidding, right? Phreakers have been cracking POTS/analogue phone systems since the 70s at least.

"If you make it, they will come" has become "If you make it, they will hack it".

"Witholding your number does NOT give you any privacy except from the user of the B number."

Smarta$$, I knew that already, but it doesn't mean my statement was wrong. Do you think that guys who are too stupid to configure their gateway so it doesn't give any jack, dick and harry a dialtone will be smart enough to ask the phone company for inbound call records? In fact it isn't always easy to get inbound records, many phone companies will not give them out without a court order.

"many phone companies will not give them out without a court order."

no, "SmartA$$", the MSISDN is delivered across the network as the call is routed, appearing in every log all the way & available to every system the call is routed through or used for other purposes whether they be MSCs or Prepay Account Managers, HLRs, MLRs or whatever.

You said: "If you call witholding your own caller ID, they will not even be able to find out who made calls on their bill."

Yes they will be able to find out. Very easily. Withholding your own callerid ONLY stops the person that answers the B number from seeing your number.

Granted they may be stupid enough not to be able to check logs or ask their supplier to. Also their supplier might be too stupid to check their logs & supply the number. After all, some people are stupid enough to think that witholding callerid actually withholds their phone number.

Anyway, why would they need a court order to view their own data?

You'll be telling me next that BT won't give an itemised phone bill without a court order.

"Anyway, why would they need a court order to view their own data?"

because its not their own data, it's the phone company's data.

"You'll be telling me next that BT won't give an itemised phone bill without a court order."

itemised bill only shows outbound calls, not incoming.

"You're kidding, right? Phreakers have been cracking POTS/analogue phone systems since the 70s at least."

Since the 60's actually and I know that. Its just no one actually does nowadays. Analogue is sooooo last century.

"The blessings of Allah on you, Sheik Bin Laden. You'll never guess who's paying for this phone call!"

they're just trying to get out of paying their phone bills, I suspect.

Won't someone think of the phone companies.