Not sweating the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program 'cause you don't have a landline, just a mobile? Tell your glands to kick in again. A computer security consultant working for a wireless carrier—probably Verizon—stumbled upon a high-speed backdoor built into the carrier's network for the Feds to pull anything from "the billing system, text messaging, fraud detection, web site, and pretty much all the systems in the data center without apparent restrictions."


Threat Level pegs the wireless carrier as Verizon Wireless, because of a 2006 lawsuit whose allegations are extremely similar—a direct line built into their network for a "Quantico recipient" (Quantico, Virginia being the FBI's cyber-surveillance HQ) which allowed:

"Direct access to all content and all information concerning the origin and termination of telephone calls placed on the Verizon Wireless network as well as the actual content of calls."


Plus!

"Unfettered access to Verizon Wireless customer records, data and information. Any customer databases, records and information could be downloaded from this center."

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Naturally, Verizon's mouthpiece Peter Thonis couldn't confirm or deny anything about a Quantico setup or if Pasdar worked for Verizon.

Takeaway, if you're dense: Everything is tapped, there's nothing you can do about it. Whatever thrust there was in righteous outrage is spent and pointless—but at least you know when you're talking to yourself (on a phone?), there's probably someone listening. =) [Threat Level]