[LINK] Murdoch faces flood of hacking claims

[Richard Chirgwin]

On 10/04/11 7:30 PM, Ben McGinnes wrote:
> On 10/04/11 10:42 AM, Kim Holburn wrote:
>> No-one is addressing the underlying problem - how is it that the
>> security on voicemail is so bad.  This is similar to the HP phone
>> hacking in the US.
>>
>> http://en.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hewlett-Packard_spying_scandal
> Interesting case.
>
>> Why do telecoms run such bad security on their phone systems.  How
>> can we urge them to fix it?
> As with all things in the corporate world, they won't fix it until it
> costs them more not to do so.  Which means that people need to start
> suing over breaches brought about as a result of poor default security
> settings.
>
>> Is there anything can individuals do to make their security better?
> Yes, but it depends on how much effort each person is willing to go
> to.
>
>> Personally I always turn my message system off!
> To get secure messages that can't be obtained by the News Corporation
> methods, the solution I came up with ought to do the trick.  It is,
> however, a little technical and might not be the best solution for
> everyone.  Anyway, it's pretty straight forward:
>
> 1) Configure an Asterisk server with VoIP.
>
> 2) Obtain a phone number to redirect to one of the VoIP channels on
> the Asterisk server.
>
> 3) Set all your other numbers to forward missed calls to the number
> assigned to the Asterisk server instead of the telco's message system.
>
> 4) Make sure the VoIP channel goes straight to the voice mail system
> in Asterisk.
>
> As long as the security of the Asterisk system is maintained it should
> keep most, if not all, people out.
>
>
> Regards,
> Ben
The one gap I can think of in the scheme is this: Asterisk transmits 
your user ID and password to the remote host in plaintext, unless it's 
specifically configured to use SSL - and then, of course, the VoIP 
provider at the other end has to support it.

RC
>
>
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