From:	Matt <mosbun@******.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
Subject:	Re: Dangers Of Portable Phones: Pt II
Date:	Mon, 21 Mar 1994 13:19:26 -0500

>Players with portable phones suddenly find themselves targets to anyone who
has
>a decker good enough to be able to break into the phone companies computer and
>download the current location of a particular handset. Don't forget all that
>enterprising decker needs is the phone number of the handset, once in the
>phone system they can cross reference that number to the current information
>regarding the movement of that receiver. They can also download the movements
>of that receiver for as long as it has been switched on. For headphones this
>is a 'serious' worry for players.

The novel "Lone Wolf" talked about this for a bit. Yes, theoretically
speaking, this is possible. Practically speaking, according to the book and
I tend to agree with this, doing so is extremely difficult. Breaking into the
phone company to get to whatever part of their system deals with the signals
from cel phones is supposed to be the work of a truely novahot decker.
However, it is also something that Lone Star, legally or not- the book didn't
say, does regularly.

Now, for something related. What about those nifty lifesigns monitors that
the DocWagon Super-platinum contract comes with. Even if it isn't possible to
break into DocWagon's system and set these neat little tracking devices off,
once you're hurt and it is beeping like mad, any corp worth the name is gonna
have the tracking gear to trace the signal and find you.



Matt