RE: $400 million network upgrade for the Pentagon

[David Schwartz <davids () webmaster com>]

> I'm sure that they have all sorts of methods.  On the other hand,
> cellphones make devilishly difficult "bugs" to eliminate, especially
> the ones that are capable of automatically answering the call and
> activating the microphone without any audible ring.  You can't just
> block all cellphones, because many people carry pagers that work on
> the same frequencies, and many people carry cellphones that they
> depend on.

        You can, and they do. Most of the secure government facilities I've been
into have a strict policy that absolutely nothing that can or does output a
signal is permitted into the building. That means cellphones, two-way pagers,
you name it.

        The official reason I was told was that such a device may 'accidentally'
transmit classified information out of the facility. But I suspect the real
reason is so that any signal they detect that they don't know about can be
treated as hostile.

        DS