

How I DOS'd My Cell Phone Using EC2 - ardell
http://www.memestreams.net/users/jello/blogid10335070/

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albertsun
Read this together with this story
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=462592> about people using VoIP and
caller ID spoofing to prank call 911 and dispatch SWAT teams.

Scary stuff. A sophisticated enough criminal could plan to pull a crime, while
at the same time DOSing the 911 call center so any legitimate 911 calls would
get lost in the noise.

~~~
cperciva
_VoIP ... DOSing the 911 call center_

Wouldn't work. "911" isn't a real phone number; it's special-cased into the
phone network so that if the phone network is overloaded the 911 call will get
through and a non-911 call will get disconnected. VoIP services don't have
direct access to 911 systems but instead proxy (once they figure out where
you're calling from and thus which 911 center to route your call to).

If you tried to DoS 911 services via VoIP, you might make it impossible to get
a call through to 911 _via that VoIP service_ , but you wouldn't block
landline 911 calls.

~~~
rjurney
I am he who DOS'd my cell phone.

I don't really understand what you mean - do you mean that 911 won't accept
more than X calls from a single VOIP provider, after they proxy the call?
Because the limit is humans answering the calls, isn't it? Is that done on a
grid too, so operators from multiple regions can handle overload in one area?

Anyway, I would imagine a more likely attack would be on private PBXes. Only
terrorists would want to take down 911, which should be resistant to call
floods, but a much larger pool of criminals would seek to disable private
phone systems.

------
nailer
"The voice was me as 'Vinnie' threatening my life. "

It sounds like he's developing harassment-ware.

~~~
rjurney
It was a demo promoting a gangster film.

~~~
wildwood
Oddly enough, in a recent episode of 'Burn Notice', they caused all of the
phones in an office to ring simultaneously in order to make their escape
during a con. They presented it more as a PBX hack, but it does sound a lot
like the security concerns you mention.

