September 2003: Computer Security Consultant Finds Network Connection between Wireless Carrier, Unnamed Third Party; Carrier May Be Providing Illegal Information on Customers’ Communications to Government Agency

Babak Pasdar. [Source: Bat Blue]Babak Pasdar, a computer security consultant for a wireless telecommunications carrier, leads a “Rapid Deployment” team to revamp the carrier’s security on its internal network. Pasdar discovers a so-called “Quantico Circuit”—a 45 megabit-per-second DS-3 line linking the carrier’s most sensitive network to an unnamed third party. When Pasdar inquires about the circuit, the carrier’s officials become uncommunicative. Wired News will later note that Quantico is the Virginia town that hosts the FBI’s electronic surveillance operations. Pasdar later writes in an affidavit: “The circuit was tied to the organization’s core network. It had access to the billing system, text messaging, fraud detection, Web site, and pretty much all the systems in the data center without apparent restrictions.” In 2008, Pasdar will come forward with the evidence (see March 6, 2008), leading observers to believe that the carrier was providing illegal access to its customers’ information to a US government agency, perhaps the FBI. Wired News will note that Pasdar’s allegations almost perfectly mirror similar allegations made against Verizon Wireless in a 2006 lawsuit (see January 31, 2006). [Wired News, 3/6/2008]