Remember pagers? Those things the dealers used in the first season of The Wire? Did you know that people still use them? Sure you may have turned off that old pager and put in your desk drawer, but that doesnt mean the back end infrastructure was turned off.
This talk will cover the basics of POCSAG/FLEX decoding using cheap SDR dongles and free software. We will also present examples of the kind of unencrypted data that is still being broadcast through the regional and national pager networks.
Xaphan is a "Senior Cyber Security Penetration Testing Specialist" for the US Department of Energy. He has been a penetration tester for 16 years, but maintains his sanity with a variety of distractions. This is his 15th defcon, but the first time he has done ANYTHING that requires effort or commitment while in Las Vegas. Twitter: @slugbait
n00bz (or his n00bzness or el n00berino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing) pays the bills by working for a F100 company doing Compliance and IT Security Globally by way of Wall Street and D&T. He grew up tying up phone lines across South Florida with his Bosun whistle. His love for all things wireless are due to his love of software defined radio and hatred of getting up to change the TV channel when the remote was lost. He has spoken at DEF CON, HackMiami (%27), DerbyCon and when advised of his right to remain silent, plead the fif! Twitter: @n00bznet