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Cell Phone Firms Dispute Wiretap Claim By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. June 7, 2005 |
Big Brother hears all. The Country's over 27 million cell phone users face the prospect of someone
snooping on their text messages or listening to their conversations, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday.
"If they have the capability to
wiretap the President, they have the capability of wiretapping you. And I wouldn't be surprised with this equipment they have that they can wiretap anyone," Bunye said.
But the country's leading cell phone companies are disputing as far-fetched the Palace's claim of
wiretapping over their GSM-based (or global system for mobile communication) networks.
A cell phone firm executive, who refused to be identified, said that wiretapping a GSM line was difficult because all messages or phone calls were encrypted and they could only be read by the recipient.
To intercept a GSM call or message, the executive said the eavesdropper should have a high-tech decrypting machine or he would only be getting computer gibberish.
The executive noted that wiretapping was easier with the previous cell phone technology -- analog -- where a voice was sent through the network, unlike GSM, which transmits only digital computer bits.
Another executive of a rival firm said that illegal surveillance on a GSM could be possible if the recipient was taping the phone call or the wiretappers had a contact among the network's switch operators.
But then the wiretappers must also have the code of the call's recipient to decipher the call or message, the executive said. Source:
INQ7.net
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