Computer Privacy Digest Fri, 12 Nov 93 Volume 3 : Issue: 073

 

Computer Privacy Digest Fri, 12 Nov 93              Volume 3 : Issue: 073

Today's Topics: Moderator: Dennis G. Rears

              _Naissance d'un virus_ soonly published :-)

        Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?

        Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?

        Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?

             Citizens Getting Credit Reports on Businesses

                    GAO report Communications Privacy

                             Privacy Source

                      threads in comp.dcom.telecom

             Re:      Re: California Driver License and SSN

   The Computer Privacy Digest is a forum for discussion on the

  effect of technology on privacy.  The digest is moderated and

  gatewayed into the USENET newsgroup comp.society.privacy

  (Moderated).  Submissions should be sent to

  comp-privacy@pica.army.mil and administrative requests to

  comp-privacy-request@pica.army.mil.

   Back issues are available via anonymous ftp on ftp.pica.army.mil

  [129.139.160.133].

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From: cccf <cccf@altern.com>

Subject: _Naissance d'un virus_ soonly published :-)

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 93 11:15:51 EST

By the general secretary of the Chaos Computer Club France (CCCF), the

French translation of "The Little Black Book of Computer Viruses" will

soonly by published by Addison-Wesley France (fax: +33 1 48 87 97 99).

Naassance d'un Virus (dec 1993, 237 pages, circa 98 FF).

--                                                      

Jean-Bernard Condat, PO Box 155, 93404 St-Ouen Cedex, France

Phone: +33 1 47874083, fax: +33 1 47874919, email: cccf@altern.com

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

Subject: Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?

Date: Wed, 10 Nov 1993 21:13:51 -0600 (CST)

From: Ron Bean <nicmad!madnix!zaphod%astroatc.UUCP@cs.wisc.edu>

Content-Type: text

Content-Length: 700

"Daniel P. B. Smith" <dpbsmith@world.std.com> writes:

 

>Does anybody know an effective method of stopping junk phone calls from

>automatic computer equipment?  Here are six things which do NOT work:

 ^^^^^^^^^

[six things deleted]

 

>Anybody know anything that WORKS?

 

   Get one of those automatic call-director boxes that says

"press 1 to talk to me, press 2 to send a fax" etc. A recorded

message is not likely to "press 1".

 

   If you have to deal with humans, just say "dial your extension

now", and don't give them any clues (your friends will know what

to dial because you've told them ahead of time).

 

==================

zaphod@madnix.UUCP (Ron Bean)

uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!madnix!zaphod

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

From: Leo@Sylvia.LANCE.ColoState.EDU (Leo J Irakliotis)

Subject: Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 02:47:18 GMT

Organization: Colorado State University, College of Engineering

In <comp-privacy3.71.3@pica.army.mil>, "Daniel P. B. Smith" <dpbsmith@world.std.com> writes:

>I didn't see an FAQ posted, so here goes.

>

>Does anybody know an effective method of stopping junk phone calls from

>automatic computer equipment?  

> [...]

>Anybody know anything that WORKS? 

My $0.02 solution (not the best but it does work): let my answering machine

handle the traffic.  Even when I am at home, I wait to hear who's calling.

I inform my friends and colleagues so when they get the "beep" tone, they

just have to say "pick up the phone you lousy greek", :-), and of course I

pick it up.

I used to have a caller ID unit, but it turned to be useless.  Even phone

calls from my office to my home were blocked so there was no way to tell

who was calling.

The "answering machine screening" seems to work fine and so far I had no

problem.  It is not the best solution, but at least it gets the job done.

                                        

=================================       Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center

Leo J. Irakliotis                          Department of Electrical Engineering

                                                      Colorado State University

Leo@Sylvia.LANCE.ColoState.EDU                           Fort Collins, CO 80523

l.irakliotis@ieee.org                                     Phone: (303) 491-2021

=================================                           Fax: (303) 491-2249

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

From: amyh@tc.fluke.COM (Amy Heidner)

Subject: Re: Is there an effective way to stop junk phone calls?

Organization: Fluke Corporation

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 17:11:26 GMT

From: "Daniel P. B. Smith" <dpbsmith@world.std.com> writes:

> Anybody know anything that WORKS? 

This works pretty well for us:  As soon as I'm aware that it's a junk

call (whether sales or donation solicitation), I interrupt and say,

politely but firmly, "We make it a policy not to do any phone solicitation.

I would like to be taken off your list, and Federal Law requires you

to do so once I've requested it."

We get (now) about 1-2 junk calls a month.  Most of our friends and

acquaintances get 10-20 times that many.

-- 

Amy Heidner Fluke Corporation Everett, WA

    amyh@tc.fluke.COM (206) 356-5498

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

From: Wm Randolph Franklin <wrf@ecse.rpi.edu>

Subject: Citizens Getting Credit Reports on Businesses

Date: 10 Nov 1993 22:25:46 GMT

Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

There's been extensive discussions about obtaining credit reports on

private citizens (you need to be extending credit, considering

employment etc), and about businesses vetting each other (e.g. D&B).

However, there's another case to consider.

Are there any easy ways for private citizens to obtain credit reports on

businesses with whom they are considering doing business?  E.g., when I

went to Borneo, I paid the tour company a few thousand $$$ a few months

in advance.  I'd have liked to check them out first.  Also, would it be

legal for me to obtain personal credit reports on the company's

officers?

Thanks.  Emailed replies will be summarized and posted.

 ------------------------

 Wm. Randolph Franklin,  wrf@ecse.rpi.edu, (518) 276-6077;  Fax: -6261

 ECSE Dept., 6026 JEC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst, Troy NY, 12180 USA

Oh, don't the day seem lank and long

When all goes right,  And nothing goes wrong?

And wouldn't life seem exceedingly flat.

With nothing whatever to grumble at?

   Princess Ida, Act II

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

cc:       comp-privacy@PICA.ARMY.MIL

From:     KH3@cu.nih.gov

Date:     Wed, 10 Nov 1993  18:26:57 EST

Subject:  GAO report Communications Privacy

GAO recently issued a report "Communications Privacy:

Federal Policy and Actions", GAO/OSI-94-2, dated

November 4, 1993, that may be of interest to members

of your group.  The report focused on the following issues:

    --The need for information privacy in computer and

      communications systems--through such means as

      encryption, or conversion of clear text to an

      unreadable form--to mitigate the threat of economic

      espionage to U.S. industry;

    --federal agency authority to develop cryptographic

      standards for the protection of sensitive,

      unclassified information and the actions and policies

      of the National Security Agency (NSA), Department of

      Defense, and of the National Institute of Standards

      and Technology (NI ST), Department of Commerce,

      regarding the selection of  federal cryptographic

      standards;

    --roles, actions, and policies of NSA and the

      Department of State related to export controls for

      products with encryption capabilities and industry

      rationale for requesting liberalization of such

      controls; and

    --the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI)

      legislative proposal regarding telephone systems that

      use digital communications technology.

I have placed an electronic version of the report named

OSI-94-2.TXT in the GAO-REPORTS anonymous FTP directory at

NIH (cu.nih.gov) or (ftp.cu.nih.gov).

Joe Sokalski, GAO--Los Angeles

              kh3@cu.nih.gov

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

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 10:53 EST

From: Robert Ellis Smith <0005101719@mcimail.com>

Subject: Privacy Source

Both Vaclav Matyas of Carleton University and Alizade of University of Toronto

asked about sources of information about technology and privacy. 

PRIVACY JOURNAL has been the authoritative publication in the field since 1974. 

We will send a sample copy of our monthly newsletter to anyone who requests it,

as well as descriptions of the books and special reports we publish on privacy. 

Ask for our s pecial discount on subscriptions for users of the net.  Books and

subscriptions may be ordered by e-mail with a credit card number. 

Robert Ellis Smith, Publisher, Privacy Journal, PO Box 28577, Providence RI

02908, 401/274-7861; MCI mail: rsmith, 510-1719. 

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

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 12:21:57 PST

From: Kelly Bert Manning <ua602%freenet.victoria.bc.ca@PICA.ARMY.MIL>

Subject: threads in comp.dcom.telecom

Near the beginning of the Digital Detective thread it was pointed out

that DD is the moderator of the comp.dcom.telecom news group, and that

his intent was perhaps to provoke discussion and to increase awareness

of the availability of this information.

I decided to follow up on these comments from the moderator by reading

what the comp.dcom.telecom moderator posted and the remarks he added.

 

Caller ID and ANI seem to be frequently appearing topics there.

 

One recent thread names specific companies, such as "Cable and Wireless"

that use ANI signals to recreate Caller ID signals. BC Tel had told me

that this was happening, but some people who responded to my mention of

this here told me(in rather forceful language) that my report of this

was a work of fiction.

 

I had been aware of ANI for at least 2 years from my own work related

research into computer integrated telephony. My concern was that the

recreation of blocked or non-existent caller ID signals from ISDN ANI

signals made calling number information available to entry level 800

operations, rather than major operations that can afford an ISDN PRI

service connection.

 

Other threads in comp.dcom.telecom deal with cases where Caller ID

boxes give a false or misleading indication of who called. One thread

deals with a case where someone's phone line appears to be being used,

perhaps by someone connecting to the lines from outside. He has gotten

several angry calls from people who say that their caller ID boxes 

shows his number.

Another thread there deals with the fact that some nuisance callers have

already found ways to trick non-ISDN caller ID boxes into displaying a

different number. Apparently the analog Calling number information is 

sent as a data burst between the first and second rings. If the caller

sends out a second signal in the correct format he can display any 

number they want to on the caller ID box. Apparently most of these boxes

have a stack, and the original call will be there somewhere(assuming no

overflow), but most caller ID subscribers aren't sophisticated enough

to realize what is going on. Some posters suggested that this is similar

to the VCR programming technophobia issue, ie. some people read the

manual or simply look at all the control labels, while others can't

sort out what functionality is available even with the manual in front

of them.

The bottom line seems to be that Caller ID seems to be of limited value

in identifying callers unless subscribers fully understand how to use it.

It may also be of little value in getting the numbers of caller to entry

800 services, since there appear to be ways to display someone else's 

number. There is also no guarantee that the originating switch will 

provide a caller ID signal. A friend who has a number of the same exchange

as mine told me that her mother's Caller ID box shows "unknown number"

whenever she calls, making it useless for call screening or tracing the

number of callers. BC Tel says that it suppresses Caller ID signals from

type 1 or 2 switches because there is no way for it to provide the free

per call blocking service required by the CRTC.

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

From: Richard Roda <rerodd@eos.ncsu.edu>

Subject: Re:      Re: California Driver License and SSN

Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos

Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 20:45:14 GMT

In article <comp-privacy3.69.1@pica.army.mil> Dave Gomberg <GOMBERG%UCSFVM.BITNET@cmsa.berkeley.edu> writes:

>The CA driver's license has been repeatedly held by the courts as a

>privledge, NOT A RIGHT.  So to grant this privledge, the state could

>require you to do anything it wishes with an appropriate state purpose.

>Collecting child support from delinquent fathers is a legitimate state

>purpose (otherwise welfare must pick up the tab).  So CA has a right to

>insist you identify yourself in a way that allows it to determine that

>you are not on any bad guys lists (which themselves are indexed by SSN).

>So you can give your SSN or you can refuse to avail yourself of the

>privledge of driving.   Dave

>

That's really neat.  Does this mean that if I don't avail myself of the

"privilidge" of driving, that I don't have to pay any taxes that go to

support the highway system?  Bzzz!  If the highway system were supported by

user fees, I would agree with this logic.  But, since it is supported from

my income taxes, I am paying for the road, but don't get to use the road I

pay for because it is a Privilidge(TM).

I don't apologise for Big Brother.  Taking tax money to support a service

and then in turn calling the service a privilidge is a time honored way of

getting around those pesky limitations in the constitution.

>Dave Gomberg, role model for those who don't ask much in their fantasy lives.

>GOMBERG@UCSFVM  Internet node UCSFVM.UCSF.EDU             fax-> (415)731-7797

>

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End of Computer Privacy Digest V3 #073

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