Emergency listening provisions

[Howard Hull]

> 	And how can a user be assured that the firmware in his PBX doesn't
> include such a dial-a-wiretap put in by the PBX supplier for testing and
> debugging the pbx hardware?   How can one be sure that there isn't some
> magic code that allows one to listen in on ones neighbor - as is 

> something similar.  What prevents such management from obtaining the
> black magic codes to dial a wiretap or even hiring someone to hack
> their PBX ?   The evidence would be much harder to find than wires
> leading to a tape recorder or bugs radiating rf energy ...
	Well, I have heard that the ROLM system we have here has an option
for "authorized persons" to listen in on the goings on in, for example, a
laboratory in which something violent is going on (explosions, fire, trapped
personnel, etc.) even though the phones are "on hook".  It could either or
both save your life or end your career, dependending on who uses it, when,
how and what for.  This never used to be possible with the Ma Bell phones,
since they had actual cradle on-hook disconnect switches.  I have no idea
what the ROLM system legal or physical inhibitions are, and what controls
in particular are applied to these kinds of accesses from, say, maintenance
or unauthorized personnel.  Anyone from ROLM on the net?
								Howard Hull
[If yet unproven concepts are outlawed in the range of discussion...
                   ...Then only the deranged will discuss yet unproven concepts]
        {ucbvax!hplabs | allegra!nbires | harpo!seismo } !hao!hull