Telcos yank FBI wiretaps FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals have been repeatedly canceled by telephone companies because the bureau failed to pay their bills on time. According to an audit conducted by an inspector general at the Justice Department, the disconnected wiretaps were the result of the FBI's lax oversight of money used …
Read about this earlier, tremendously funny stuff.
"Ahh Hussuf, have you concealed the nuclear weapon somewhere devastating so we can deal a final blow to the infidel?"
"Yes, it's in a box right next to the " click..
"I'm sorry, but the number you are calling is not in service, please call back again at a later date."
And to think this all came to light only because someone blabbed about how easy it was to pinch $25K. Would love to know how they deal with the collection calls in the office that owes $66K tho, that must be a barrel of laughs.
"""Oh wait the telco's aren't the NHS . Their systems would actually be protected"""
Thats only because the Telcos have learned from experience. Even if you only believe a tiny percentage of the outragous stories that people tell about the good old days of phreaking, it's obvious that the telcos learned the hard way about physical security, social engineering, passwords, data protection, and secure system design.
There is a lot to be learned from the experiences of the Telcos, but that goes against the government's policy of avoiding reason at all costs.
... and the Official Secret". Our eponymous hero was defending a person accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act [designed to protect officials, not secrets]. Despite his phone bill being massively in the red, for the duration of the case, it mysteriously doesn't get cut off .... IIRC he gets back from the verdict of the case to discover it's finally been disconnected ...
Paris angle ? Well "Rumpole" *sounds* a bit like "Rumpo" ....
Get the low down on when their lines will be cut..
If they don't lose *that* tap first - OK, back to the drawing board.
It's a good thing the writers are on strike - you would have sacked anyone who wrote something like that for a series for straining credulity well past teh fault line. Where do they get those clowns who run those services? No, wait, that was retorical - they're Made In America..
"There is a lot to be learned from the experiences of the Telcos, but that goes against the government's policy of avoiding reason at all costs."
You do the government a great disservice ...
The trick is to SAY we need to devise a new system. Rack up 000,000s in "consultant fees" and then after a suitable period deliver what the Telcos designed 20 years ago, to a fanfare of government spin ....
The worrying thing, is at the end of the day whatever is delivered is still crap .....
if you want "FBI Undercover"; 40 USD and a letterhead from dept. To quote from one site "JACKETS BEARING ATF,DEA,OR FBI OR ANY OTHER FEDERAL ID OR AGENCY INSIGNIA (E.G. ICE) PURCHASER IS REQUIRED TO FAX A LEGIBLE COPY OF HIS/HER FEDERAL ID(CREDENTIALS) WITH PHOTO".
Standard "Police" and "Sheriff" Sweatshirt need no ID and cost from 20 USD or I found a "Suspect" jacket for 35 USD
Maybe the FBI should tap the phones and desktops of its own accounts department?
That way, it would presumably be able to keep track on whether the bills were being paid.
[A nice idea, but you can guess the accounts department would probably fail to pay the bills for their own monitoring, to scupper the whole idea].
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
