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| Tap, Tap, Tap … On My Phone - The Tech Behind Phone Tapping |
| By : Flynn Remedios | Previous | Next |
| Posted on : 04 Jul, 2007 | Total Views : 478 |
The recent phone tapping allegations by almost every other politician, except those in the Congress has got the entire country interested. However, most of us are in the dark on how it is done.
Firstly there are two ways of doing it – legally and illegally. It's much safer and sometimes cheaper to do it the legit way, but with the latest tech offerings, one can even tap another's phone without much fuss provided one has the moolah to throw around.
For example, during the peak of the Ambani brothers pow-wow, the younger sibling accused the elder one and his cronies of tapping his phones, both land, cellular and CDMA lines. It's a different tale that the elder sibling was then running Reliance Infocomm, but ADA accused him of tapping even his GSM phones. Here is a dekko on how it's done.
To tap a phone legally (you and I can't do it, but presuming that you have the required permissions from the Home dept., et all ) in case of GSM phones, the GSM service provider can give you a line out, or a parallel connection to the "tapped line". This line out can be either routed to a speaker (for hearing) or to a tape recording system. Most recording systems are now completely digital. Gone are the days of the conventional tape recorder. Professional recording systems have built in voice synthesizers, analyzers and other assorted gadgetry like one would have seen in Executive Decision.
In case you can't get a line out (the legit way) and if you have a few hundred lakhs to spend you can get a signal interception device. It's a small computer controlled, windows 98 or NT machine that can tap or record GSM conversations even 2 km away. It's not easy to import such a device into the country, so please don't reach out for your cheque book or credit card. You need to be a telecom service provider to be able to get such a device into the country. Of course you could always smuggle it, the way the crooks smuggle in RDX, drugs, etc. Such equipment is used by your GSM operator to monitor and test signal strength, call dropping, etc. The device manufactured primarily in Israel is available in different configurations that allows for the listening into of one to several hundred lines and could cost from Rs 30 lakhs for a single line to a few crores for multiple lines.
When it comes to CDMA phones, the signal interceptor may not be so successful given the different nature of the signals, though similar equipment is easily available.
A method called cloning can also be used to tap a phone, both GSM or CDMA. For this one needs to know the IMEI (in case of GSM phones) or ESN (in case of CDMA phones) of the user, including his mobile number. A duplicate or cloned SIM (in case of GSM) or phone (in case of CDMA) is made and the duplicate phone is used to listen in to voice conversations.
While most police departments tap and listen to voice conversations from time to time (hopefully you haven't forgotten the Salman Khan tapes issue) the equipment and techniques used are quite rudimentary.
Mumbai's crime branch uses conventional tape/CD recording equipment to record conversations. In most cases, they get a line out from the service provider or install recording equipment at the service providers' switch. By law, every telco is required to provide a recording and tapping facility to the local crime branch, the CBI, RAW, IB, DRI, etc. According to DCP Manoj Lohiya (formerly DCP, Economic Offences, Crime Branch, Mumbai), the Mumbai police have the capability to listen in to hundreds of lines simultaneously. The Mumbai crime branch has also invested in sophisticated lap-top based equipment says a source, which can be used to listen in to conversations while on the move.
However, at any given time not more than 4-8 recording channels are used says our source, as we have bandwidth problems...
Written By : Flynn Remedios
