Several recent news stories have been circulated explaining just how easy it is to get a copy of someones calling records. The mainstream source that seemed to break this was the Chicago Sun-Times which published a story on January 5, 2006 “Your phone records are for sale” giving some information about how many public agencies such as the FBI and Chicago Police Department are warning their employees about how easy it is to obtain phone records.

One of the more interesting reads is Paul McNamara’s January 23, 2006 article “How phone records are stolen” where he explains just how most of these companies are getting the records to begin with. In the end it usually comes down to some kind of social engineering of a phone company employee. Either they are recurited to supply this information or they are cajoled into giving it up to someone other than the account holder.

There’s been some recent movement in congress to block the sale of these phone records. It doesn’t take too much imagination to wonder if these congress people are more concerned with protecting their constituants or themselves. One wonders just what sort of interesting calls get made by these politicians. It would be quite the story indeed if a major newspaper were to use this easy access to phone records to expose one of these politians as a stooge for some special interest group or wealthy campaign contributor. For just this reason I would be surprised if congress did not move quickly to outlaw the sale of these records and enforce strict penalties on anyone involved with their sale.