All US Phone Call Records And Billing Done In Israel

 - Part 2

Carl Cameron Investigates

FoxNews.com

12-13-1

http://www.rense.com/general18/isr2.htm

BRIT HUME, HOST: Last time we reported on the approximately 60 Israelis who had been detained in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorism investigation. Carl Cameron reported that U.S. investigators suspect that some of these Israelis were spying on Arabs in this country, and may have turned up information on the planned terrorist attacks back in September that was not passed on.

 

Tonight, in the second of four reports on spying by Israelis in the U.S., we learn about an Israeli-based private communications company, for whom a half-dozen of those 60 detained suspects worked. American investigators fear information generated by this firm may have fallen into the wrong hands and had the effect of impeded the Sept. 11 terror inquiry. Here's Carl Cameron's second report.

 

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

 

CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fox News has learned that some American terrorist investigators fear certain suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks may have managed to stay ahead of them, by knowing who and when investigators are calling on the telephone. How?

 

By obtaining and analyzing data that's generated every time someone in the U.S. makes a call.

 

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What city and state, please?

 

CAMERON: Here's how the system works. Most directory assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. are done for the phone companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private elecommunications company.

 

Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide. The White House and other secure government phone lines are protected, but it is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones without generating an Amdocs record of it.

 

In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have investigated Amdocs more than once. The firm has repeatedly and adamantly denied any security breaches or wrongdoing. But sources tell Fox News that in 1999, the super secret national security agency, headquartered in northern Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in the United States were getting into foreign hands - in Israel, in particular.

 

Investigators don't believe calls are being listened to, but the data about who is calling whom and when is plenty valuable in itself. An internal Amdocs memo to senior company executives suggests just how Amdocs generated call records could be used. "Widespread data mining techniques and algorithms.... combining both the properties of the customer (e.g., credit rating) and properties of the specific 'behavior.'" Specific behavior, such as who the customers are calling.

 

The Amdocs memo says the system should be used to prevent phone fraud. But U.S. counterintelligence analysts say it could also be used to spy through the phone system. Fox News has learned that the N.S.A has held numerous classified conferences to warn the F.B.I. and C.I.A. how Amdocs records could be used. At one NSA briefing, a diagram by the Argon national lab was used to show that if the phone records are not secure, major security breaches are possible.

 

Another briefing document said, "It has become increasingly apparent that systems and networks are vulnerable.Such crimes always involve unauthorized persons, or persons who exceed their authorization...citing on exploitable vulnerabilities."

 

Those vulnerabilities are growing, because according to another briefing, the U.S. relies too much on foreign companies like Amdocs for high-tech equipment and software. "Many factors have led to increased dependence on code developed overseas.... We buy rather than train or develop solutions."

 

U.S. intelligence does not believe the Israeli government is involved in a misuse of information, and Amdocs insists that its data is secure. What U.S. government officials are worried about, however, is the possibility that Amdocs data could get into the wrong hands, particularly organized crime. And that would not be the first thing that such a thing has happened. Fox News has documents of a 1997 drug trafficking case in Los Angeles, in which telephone information, the type that Amdocs collects, was used to "completely compromise the communications of the FBI, the Secret Service, the DEO and the LAPD."

 

We'll have that and a lot more in the days ahead - Brit.

 

HUME: Carl, I want to take you back to your report last night on those 60 Israelis who were detained in the anti-terror investigation, and the suspicion that some investigators have that they may have picked up information on the 9/11 attacks ahead of time and not passed it on.

 

There was a report, you'll recall, that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency, did indeed send representatives to the U.S. to warn, just before 9/11, that a major terrorist attack was imminent. How does that leave room for the lack of a warning?

 

CAMERON: I remember the report, Brit. We did it first internationally right here on your show on the 14th. What investigators are saying is that that warning from the Mossad was nonspecific and general, and they believe that it may have had something to do with the desire to protect what are called sources and methods in the intelligence community. The suspicion being, perhaps those sources and methods were taking place right here in the United States.

 

The question came up in select intelligence committee on Capitol Hill today. They intend to look into what we reported last night, and specifically that possibility - Brit.

 

HUME: So in other words, the problem wasn't lack of a warning, the problem was lack of useful details?

 

CAMERON: Quantity of information.

 

HUME: All right, Carl, thank you very much.

 

 

 

Comment

 

From David A. Doane
dad@inconnect.com
12-18-1

 

I have worked in the telecommunications operational software systems (OSS) business for a number of years. AMDOCS does have a significant market share of the local phone billing through their contracts with the "Baby Bells", BUT does not "own" this market, and, there are a number of other significant players in the cellular and long distance. For example all AT&T long distance calls go through a billing system built by CONVERGYS (a long time supplier to AT&T). Many very big companies are involved in this billing space of the total OSS market.

 

AND (and this is a very big and), most of the installed billing systems are nut managed by AMDOCS. When a system is installed it is managed by the telecom customer. One thing Telecommunications companies are VERY serious about is owning the billing service, because in the final analysis that is the only contact that most end users have with the phone company, therefore it is the perceived point of value. Some Telecoms contract out the actual printing and mailing of the bill and some of the software companies provide this service (AMDOCS is one that does).

 

The bottom line is that there are points in the billing process that third parties MAY get a hold of the call detail records, BUT it is VERY unlikely that one company can have a large enough share to undermine the system or mine for data. The only place that this is possible is with government telecom contractors and that should be looked into seriously.

 

Below is a short list of the software companies that play in this space.

 

Abiliti Solutions

ACE*COMM

Am-Beo

AMDOCS

Apogee Networks

Avolent

The Billing College

Billing World and OSS Today

BillSoft

The Board Room

CBILL, Inc.

Checkfree i Solutions

ComArch Group

Comm Soft

Communications Data Group

Comporium Data Services

Comptel Corporation

Convergys

CTI Group

Daleen Technologies

DATAMATX

DocSense

DPC

DST Innovis

edocs

Ericsson

eMIS

Engel Consulting Group

EUR Systems

European Communications

Exstream Software

Financial Statement Services

Fujitsu Consulting

Group 1 Software

Hewlett-Packard Company

High Deal, Inc.

IBM

Info Directions

Infotech Solutions

Intec Telecom Systems PLC

Intrado Inc.

IPDR.org

Isis Papyrus America Inc.

Kabira

KPMG Consulting Inc.

Lucent Technologies

Mail2000, A UPS Company

Metavante Corporation

Metratech

MIND CTI

MindSparX

Moore BCS

Narus

nTels Co.

OSG Billing Services

Output Technology Solutions

Personix

Platinum Communications, Inc.

Portal Software

Protek

Quintrex Data Systems

RateIntegration

Schlumberger Sema

Sentori

Service Level Corporation

Smarten U.S.

SMS Consulting

SunTec Business Solutions

Teleflex Systems, Inc.

TeleKnowledge

TeleStrategies, Inc.

Telution

The Tower Group

Times Ten Performance Software

TMNG Inc.

TSI Telecommunication Services

UDP

United Support Systems

USHA Communications Technology

Vertex Inc.

Vestcom International

Vibrant Solutions

XACCT Technologies

 

Sincerely,

 

David

 

Sincerely,

 

David