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ENUM domain hijack an already unlawful wiretap?


Here's a strawman for you to to shoot down:

case 1: my neighbour opens the house distribution panel and diverts my POTS line to his phone, consequently receives phone calls destined for me (those originated on the PSTN).

case 2: my newly allocated phone number was in fact used before and had an ENUM domain associated with it. The old number holder on purpose "forgot" to deregister the ENUM domain (although the terms & conditions on the domain contract clearly stated he has to) and consequently receives phone calls destined for me (those originating on the Internet). For the sake of argument, let's assume there are no safeguards at the telco, registrar or registry level or they happened to have broken down in my case.

Taking the "technology neutral" view, I'd say both are cases of an unlawful wiretap. For that legislation exists making the person responsible doing that, not the telco.

Now where's the difference? I wonder if we need any regulation against ENUM domain hijack at all.

Nevermind that case 2 is one of the more stupid forms of intentional wiretapping as it is in most cases hard to predict who's going to be tapped in the first place because that depends on the lucky draw of number reassignment, leave alone the unattractive timespan between intent and "success". But the case of "inadvertent wiretap by negligence" remains.

ready, aim, shoot...



-Michael


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