IS YOUR PHONE BEING TAPPED?

After a phone
tapping scandal took
centre stage in Indian
parliament, the Indian Govt.
has again come under
scanner, following the
reports of Indian Finance
Minister's room allegedly
being "bugged". It's not
surprising then, if the
thought, 'Is my phone being
tapped?' crosses one's
mind.
*****
While it is typically illegal to
bug (listen to the
conversations remotely)
anyone's phone in India, it's
very easy to tap a landline
connection. If you ever
hooked up another phone
in your house, technically
you have tapped
your
phone line. A phone
line has a green and red
copper wire, which form a
circuit. The wire transmit
sound waves as an electric
current, which a telephone
company sends through wires connected to the
phone. It's easy to add a
new load to the circuit
board along this path.
This method, however, is
too primitive in today's
tech-savvy world.
Eavesdroppers now use
bugs within
microphones
that pick up sound waves
directly. The sound runs to
a radio transmitter, which
transmits a signal varying
with the current. Those
spying on you could set upa nearby radio receiver
that picks up this signal
and sends it to
a speaker or encodes it on
a tape.An ultrasonic or VLF
bug is a technique used to
convert the sound into an
audio signal above range
of human hearing. An RF
(radio frequency) bug
is the most well-known
bugging device, through
which a radio transmitter
is placed in an area or
device. An optical bug
converts sound into an
optical pulse or a beam of
light. It is rarely used, expensive, and easy
to detect.
Bugs would need a sweep to be
detected, since all complicated
equipment can be concealed
from telephone lines. However,
the radio receiver has to be
within range of the transmitter
- for instance, in a van parked
outside a house.Various companies also
sell

spy software like
'Ultimate Bluetooth
mobile

phone spy 2010',
with which one can easily
eavesdrop on anyone's
calls, or even read
SMSs. FlexiSpy, for
instance, is a software that
can be downloaded on a
phone, which collects all
available data and sends it
to

a web account for
viewing. Another tool, the
Spybubble Cell Phone
Spying Software, can be
downloaded for approx
$60, allows live call
interception, recording of incoming and outgoing call
history, viewing

text

messages and transfer of
recorded mobile phone
activities into a remote
server for storage.
It is common knowledge that
every mobile subscriber's phone
conversations are recorded and
retained
for seven days,
primarily to monitor various
communications channels used
by terrorists. Tracking would be
easierwith 3G phones, since
the base stations would be
located close to each other.
However, there are ways
to counter phone-
tapping threats. A high-
tech 'frequency finder
bug
detector', for instance, can
detect phones,
hidden
cameras, eavesdropping
devices or bugs. An RF
'telephone analyzer' can
alert about a wiretrap on a
telephone line. A computer
controlled unit from
Brickhouse Security continuously sweeps a
telephone and phone
line for any eavesdropping.
It also sweeps a room for
RF bugs (the detection
frequency ranges from
70Mhz to 2Ghz).Data
encryption technology too,
helps to curtail
unauthorised phone-
tapping to an extent.
However, as encryption
capabilities improve, so do
wiretapping techniques.
Being aware, however, can
be of immense help.