Fergie's Tech Blog

Telco Hand-Off of Call Data to Israeli Company?

This is an interesting twist. And the first I've heard of this possible link.

The plot thickens?

Eric Umansky writes over on his blog, where he oft-times thinks aloud about matters of national security:

Administration officials have acknowledged that the government, as the NYT puts it, has "access to records of most telephone calls in the United States." So what's up with Verizon and BellSouth denying USA Today's report that they've turned over the records?

The NYT' s suggestion: The spooks are tracking only long-distance calls, and Verizon and BellSouth hand those calls off to other providers, such as, say, AT&T, which is the one company named that has stayed mum.

Meanwhile my friend Mr. Cook just emailed me flagging another potential explanation, which he noticed on Fox News. (Why Cook is watching Fox News is a different mystery.) Anyway, here's the transcript snippet he emailed me:

[Correspondent Brian] WILSON: Then there is this, Brit. FOX News has learned that BellSouth subcontracts with an Israeli company known as Amdocs to handle its billing, as do several other U.S. phone companies. In 2001, U.S. intelligence officials were on record as saying that the information that Amdocs handled was so valuable that a great deal could be learned if sophisticated data-mining techniques were used against that information -- Brit?

HUME: OK, Brian. Thank you.

More here.

Who is this Amdocs?

Or is this some ploy by Fox News to divert attention away from the telcos?

posted by Fergie @ 5/18/2006 06:34:00 AM