Robocalling, A Litany Of Telecom and Government Incompetence

Lily Hay Newman, writing at Wired, brings us the bad-news of robo-calling mitigation efforts in the United States (also published on Wired's sister site - Ars Technica - both Conde Nast properties). As usual, the incompetence of the telecom's participating in these mitigation and remediation efforts combined with the signature lack of technological know-how in the United States government has brought us to this unfortunate-old-box-of-1st-world-pain.

'Though it's frustrating that existing efforts haven't made much of a dent in robocalling yet, Ian Barlow, who oversees the FTC's Do Not Call Registry, says that things would be even more dire without the measures that are already in place. "Like any law enforcement agency we're never going to stamp out every crime," he says. "But without that enforcement the problem would be much worse."' - via Lily Hay Newman, writing at Wired, brings us the bad-news of robo-calling mitigation efforts in the United States

FCC Fails To Mandate Signaling System 7 Remediation Effort: Nothing To See Here, Move Along

Andrea Peterson, writing for Ars Technica and the Project on Government Oversight, tells the tale of FCC malfeasance coming to the fore - in not mandating requisite technical remediation of SS7 shortcomings. Today's Must Read.

'A panel advising President Bill Clinton raised the alarm back in 1997, saying that SS7 was among America’s networking “crown jewels” and warning that if those crown jewels were “attacked or exploited, [it] could result in a situation that threatened the security and reliability of the telecommunications infrastructure.” By 2001, security researchers argued that risks associated with SS7 were multiplying thanks to “deregulation” and “the Internet and wireless networks.” They were proved right in 2008 when other researchers demonstrated ways that hackers could use flaws in SS7 to pinpoint the location of unsuspecting cell phone users.' - via Andrea Peterson, writing for both Ars Technica and Project on Government Oversight, tells the sorry tale of SS7

Cough Up The Bandwidth

via Kieren McCarthy, writing at El Reg, reports of a contemplated bill (H.B. 1426) before the State of Texas' House of Representatives ostensibly making data throttling on mobile networks during a declared emergency illegal.

My two-bits is to include incarceration as a penalty, and you'll see some fast action and/or nationalization of the offending company's circuits for (at least) the duration of the emergency plus 45 days... (this would parallel the federalization of our nation's railroads during wartime - last used in the 20th century, during World War II) What'll it be there, Pard? At any rate, this is all speculation...)

DerbyCon 2018, Tso-Jen Liu's 'Fuzz Your Smartphone From 4G Base Station Side' →

Videography Credit: Irongeek (Adrian Crenshaw).

Elevated, Perhaps... →

Let us join John Timmer - whilst writing at Ars Technica, as the Good Author hitches his wagon - as it were- onto an elevator and into a telemarketing Hades; and, Weep, my friends,for the practically useless DoNotCall registry, and Telecom Security - or lack thereof, while you're at it.

Wire, Barbed →

The telecom of the 19th century North American West. via Kottke. In-built physical security, easy propagation, no need to duplicate the medium. Signals traversed easily, good conductivity, low(ish) resistance, what more did they (i.e, we) need?