When Jonar Nader was the President of the Australian Information Technology Society, he conducted a lecture called ‘How to become a data thief’. That was in 1993, and he has since given hundreds of interviews about this topic. And still, no-one seems to be listening about the risks and vulnerabilities. Further below is a transcript of the video.
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Here is the transcript:
Female: After the break. Data theft, it’s a growing international business.
Female: The electronic age has made instant global communication possible but the system is also open to abuse. Technology guru and author of the first computer dictionary, warns people to be on guard against a growing epidemic, data theft.
Teresa Miller: Scandals like Camillagate and the Princess Diana tapes highlight just how easy it is to tap into phone conversations of not just the Royals but of mere mortals as well. And you don’t need exotic telephones like this one to spy on your friends and foes. According to Jonar Nader, the President of the Information Technology Society, we are all vulnerable to data theft and we should guard against it.
Jonar Nader: This all adage that says, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear is one that’s a bit of a propaganda by those who love collecting information to use it against you whether it would be governments, security agencies, opponents, friends, or ex-lovers.
Teresa Miller: Nader says, information can be gleaned from your phone or credit card bill, computer screen, or fax machine. A recent US study reveals that 22% of bosses admit to reading their employees’ email or listening to their voicemail.
Jonar Nader: Using a time machine like this, which you can buy from any store, you’re able to call into virtually any company’s voicemail system and once you worked out the way it works, you sit there to your heart content and try the card numbers and you can get into people’s private voicemails.
Teresa Miller: One of the easiest ways to gather information is through the phone. Itemized phone bills give the number and date and time you called. A phone card automatically gives you the last number dialed as well of course, pressing the redial button on the phone.
Jonar Nader: So, if you make a phone call to a pornographic company and then you want to be the next president of some government, let’s say you called 0055 and you know, therefore you’re not a family man. Well, this is the oldest trick in the book, is you place a double adaptor at an employee’s phone or to your wife’s phone or wherever you like, and just connect another phone to it. That’s the oldest trick in the book.
Another way is not to actually tap the phone but the tap the room or where the person is speaking.
Teresa Miller: Fax machines can also be manipulated. Confidential faxes can be redirected. Anyone can print out a journal to find out where faxes are going to or coming from. An embarrassment if you’re job hunting or dealing with a competitor. Nader warns not to leave your computer logged on when you leave your desk. By simply hitting the print button, an office theft can access your last document.
No computer password is foolproof. For example, if you use any word found in the dictionary, it can be easily detected by doing a simple word search on the computer and then even if you think you’ve come up with a clever combination of numbers and letters, that also can be cracked by a simple diskette advertised in a leading computer magazine. Even keypads use as security passes into buildings or cars and not foolproof.
Jonar Nader: Behind one of these is a device like this. If – if a theft knows where to get a hold of this device and photograph it off the wall at home, one is able to work out your security number because these here are the codes A, B, C, and D across and then the number. So, your very first number in this household is number 6 and you work out the other four digits.
Teresa Miller: Millions of dollars worth of monitoring equipment is available legally and illegally. Monitorization has enabled gadgets like this one to fit neatly into a book or into inconspicuous places to monitor conversations. Even the humble voice activated Dictaphone can be misused. A gadget like this could be built by an electronic whiz in minutes to interfere with infrared frequencies which open your car, garage, or house doors.
Jonar Nader also suspects Big Brother behind the proposed Australia Card.
Jonar Nader: It means that anything you do, everything you do, however you do it can be tracked and traced.
Teresa Miller: Are you perhaps just being a little paranoid?
Jonar Nader: People should understand what is happening out there so that they can decide whether they want to be paranoid about it or not because if they don’t do anything about it, it’s still happening. And it’s happening at an alarming rate. All you have to do is pick up the phonebook Yellow Pages and a private investigator and see there are three pages full of people who do this for full-time living and there are thousands of security officers, police officers, and others out there trying to get information on you.
Teresa Miller: Yes. Yes, information is the most precious currency. Guard it with your life. Teresa Miller, 11AM.
Female: And you thought your business was safe and private. Watch out.
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