Question on paging and security

[MrBungle]

Hi, first post I think. My question is this. I decode pager messages using software, a data slicer and scanner. Some of these messages are SMS messages. Some have been ‘liked’ how they do in my own text messages.

How is this possible? What’s happening where a secure message from a cell system is ending up on someone’s 900mhz frequency, being broadcast nationwide like this? How are these messages leaving the cell system?

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Enquiring Minds Want To Know!!

What Soft Warez are you using!!

 

[IC-R20]

Enquiring Minds Want To Know!!

What Soft Warez are you using!!

PDW is pretty good popular one. Does the Pocsag and FLEX. I used that a lot with my RTL type sdr until the 900 mhz site in my area went down. Local radio company does have some on 150 and 450 too though but it's mostly empty.

 

[kruser]

FYI,

In the US, paging reception and decoding is illegal and is a federal offense. It is protected by the ECPA much as the old AMPS cell phone band is but the frequencies are not blocked in the receivers.
I don't know that I'd discuss that I'm doing this on an open forum! Just saying.

I know a tech in the paging industry. He said most pocsag and flex paging protocols that remain on the air today, are to be fully encrypted soon if they are not encrypted already.
I checked on this a little and found that companies like Unication do indeed sell alpha pagers now that are called "secure" models which are simple variations of the old Gold and Elite line as Motorola called them before getting out of the pager business and Unication took over Motorola's paging line. Unication pretty much kept the old Motorola names for most models.

With the slim paging market today, it does not seem like there would be much of a way to recoup your investment in secure pagers unless they can do it with a simple firmware flash and a new sticker on the pager. Hospitals and the medical field are some of the largest users left on paging systems he said and they are the ones that triggered the need for encryption.
I guess that makes investing in encryption worthwhile for the paging companies.

 

[MrBungle]

But how or why are these cellular text messages on these frequencies? I can't see the correlation.

 

[kruser]

I don't recall when it was but we had the means to send an SMS message directly into the paging network from our phones.
We had one common capcode on a Flex system that all supervisors had in their pagers. It was meant for emergencies when you needed to page that group.
I could send an SMS to that group or to individual users. If the message typed on the phone contained any emoticon's (smiley faces etc.), they were stripped out from what went to the pager as the pagers could not display anything but ASCII text.

I'm not sure this is what you are seeing.

How do you know the messages you see on a paging network are indeed SMS messages from a cell network?
Anyone can type in any message they want with common TAP protocol software or sometimes from a web interface at the paging companies site.

Do you have any examples or a picture, screenshot of what you are seeing? I think I'm having a hard time understanding what you see when you say a paging network message was actually an SMS message.

 

[MrBungle]

Next time I see it, I'll screenshot one. I don't see it too often. On my phone I can 'Like' a message or picture. And I saw a message that was 'Liked" by the recipient. The frequency is 929.6625.

 

[MrBungle]

I could send an SMS to that group or to individual users. If the message typed on the phone contained any emoticon's (smiley faces etc.), they were stripped out from what went to the pager as the pagers could not display anything but ASCII text.

I'm not sure this is what you are seeing.

How do you know the messages you see on a paging network are indeed SMS messages from a cell network?
Anyone can type in any message they want with common TAP protocol software or sometimes from a web interface at the paging companies site.

The first [paragraph makes sense. I see that a lot. The second part- it's the 'Liked" part that's throwing me off. And you are right about the TAP part too.

Oh, and I've seen some sexy time messages also.

 

[IC-R20]

FYI,

In the US, paging reception and decoding is illegal and is a federal offense. It is protected by the ECPA much as the old AMPS cell phone band is but the frequencies are not blocked in the receivers.
I don't know that I'd discuss that I'm doing this on an open forum! Just saying.

I know a tech in the paging industry. He said most pocsag and flex paging protocols that remain on the air today, are to be fully encrypted soon if they are not encrypted already.
I checked on this a little and found that companies like Unication do indeed sell alpha pagers now that are called "secure" models which are simple variations of the old Gold and Elite line as Motorola called them before getting out of the pager business and Unication took over Motorola's paging line. Unication pretty much kept the old Motorola names for most models.

With the slim paging market today, it does not seem like there would be much of a way to recoup your investment in secure pagers unless they can do it with a simple firmware flash and a new sticker on the pager. Hospitals and the medical field are some of the largest users left on paging systems he said and they are the ones that triggered the need for encryption.
I guess that makes investing in encryption worthwhile for the paging companies.

Nobody cares, nothing happens, nothing is getting encrypted, you don't know anybody. Quit being a little whacker and trying to stir up drama for attention. People by specific pagers with built in hardware encryption for that btw.

 

[kruser]

Nobody cares, nothing happens, nothing is getting encrypted, you don't know anybody. Quit being a little whacker and trying to stir up drama for attention. People by specific pagers with built in hardware encryption for that btw.

I'm just stating a valid fact for users doing this in the US.
As far as encryption goes, there are now two paging systems here that are 100% encrypted. The users did not purchase new pagers, the company supplied them. And yes, I am good friends with a tech that works on the paging transmitters in this area amongst other radio systems in the region.

 

[belvdr]

FYI,

In the US, paging reception and decoding is illegal and is a federal offense. It is protected by the ECPA much as the old AMPS cell phone band is but the frequencies are not blocked in the receivers.
I don't know that I'd discuss that I'm doing this on an open forum! Just saying.

Not a lawyer, but my reading of the ECPA of 1986 deals with restricting government snooping, not individuals decoding cleartext transmissions via RF.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) | Bureau of Justice Assistance

BackgroundThe Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Stored Wire Electronic Communications Act are commonly referred together as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986. The ECPA updated the Federal Wiretap Act of 1968, which addressed interception of conversations using...

it.ojp.gov

 

[nd5y]

Not a lawyer, but my reading of the ECPA of 1986 deals with restricting government snooping, not individuals decoding cleartext transmissions via RF.

You're looking in the wrong place. Common carrier paging is one of the things that the law defines as not "readily accessible to the general public" and it restricts "any person" not just the government.

 

[MrBungle]

Thanks everyone for the hijack. I didn't come in and make a post about legal. I don't care. I really don't.

I was asking more of a technical question. That was all. Nothing more. Nothing less. I didn't know how some secure data transfer was making it's way onto an unencrypted plain text 900mhz frequency.

 

[belvdr]

You're looking in the wrong place. Common carrier paging is one of the things that the law defines as not "readily accessible to the general public" and it restricts "any person" not just the government.

No, I'm looking right where the other person said it was defined as illegal. What law are you referring to?

 

[kruser]

I was asking more of a technical question. That was all. Nothing more. Nothing less. I didn't know how some secure data transfer was making it's way onto an unencrypted plain text 900mhz frequency.

Do you know who the paging company is? Maybe an FCC search by the frequency will reveal that info but being paging, it can be tricky to search.
A lot of the license info for the paging block or region you are in may still be listed under old companies that have not existed for years.

If you can figure that out, a visit to their website may reveal the methods available for getting a message onto their network.
Many still offer 1200 and 2400 baud modem support as one method. They usually offer an email to pager gateway as well as an actual link on their website that you can send from as well.

Something on their site may give you the answer.
I don't think it's really any different than the email to SMS capability that most cell providers offer though. Just in reverse where a cell phone sends SMS text or email into a paging companies gateway.

They used to offer voice service as well where you left a voice message for a pager user, a human at the paging company listened to that message and typed it into a terminal as best as they could understand it. Usually minus any cuss words! I don't know if that is still offered today but if so, it may use a computer to make the translation.

 

[kruser]

No, I'm looking right where the other person said it was defined as illegal. What law are you referring to?

I'm not sure exactly where it is posted. I do believe it was not in the first version of the ECPA though but was added in the addendum to the ECPA in what, 1997 (not certain what year the original ECPA was modified) or so? There were a few things added.
That's probably also when they added the provision that made manufacturers cover the band-switching circuits in scanners with epoxy so nobody could modify a scanner to receive AMPS band analog cell calls via images. This method was not covered in the original ECPA wording.

 

[nd5y]

No, I'm looking right where the other person said it was defined as illegal. What law are you referring to?

https://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title18/part1/chapter119

Sec. 2510. Definitions
Sec. 2511. Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited

 

[belvdr]

https://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title18/part1/chapter119

Sec. 2510. Definitions
Sec. 2511. Interception and disclosure of wire, oral, or electronic communications prohibited

Still don't see it but again, I'm not a lawyer so that should come as no surprise. I'll leave it to lawyers to interpret.

 

[morfis]

Thanks everyone for the hijack. I didn't come in and make a post about legal. I don't care. I really don't.

I was asking more of a technical question. That was all. Nothing more. Nothing less. I didn't know how some secure data transfer was making it's way onto an unencrypted plain text 900mhz frequency.

Over here there are numerous gateways into and out of the national pager networks...the major phone networks have them, numerous companies have their own.
As a result you can see messages forwarded from twatter/farceblog and the like as well as people having their e-mail forwarded into the pager system. Parcel delvery info forwarded through the pager network as well as all the usual tedious stuff about trumptons, ambulances, transplants, process control etc etc

... or so I beleive...it's illegal to listen/decode here too ;-)