Hacker Chronicles 1/HACKER1.ISO/radio2/satscan.txt

Text File | 1992-10-03 | 8KB | 141 lines

           Telecommunications (A Special Report): Strategies
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             Porous Lines:
             Few Companies Bother to Protect
             Their Voice and Data Transmissions
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             By Eileen White





           A LOS ANGELES photographer says he can "read Bank of
          America account-transfer information virtually at will" on
          his television screen as he scans satellite frequencies.
             Chris Schultheiss, editor of STV Magazine, says his
          satellite dish regularly picks up video teleconferences of
          Chrysler Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and
          Amway Corp. "You can see and hear everything," he says.



             Ross Engineering Associates, an Adamstown, Md., firm that
          investigates possible high-tech security leaks, found
          evidence that some telephones of a large service company --
          including the chairman's cellular mobile phone -- might be
          under electronic surveillance. But the company, which was
          beaten out of $200 million of contracts by a competitor with
          an uncanny knack for besting contract bids, fired its
          security chief rather than take extensive electronic
          countermeasures.
             With more voice and data traffic being sent over the
          airwaves rather than through conventional cables, the privacy
          of telecommunications is increasingly being breached. It is
          often impossible to know when vital information is being
          intercepted. Some companies find it hard to believe that
          competitors have the expertise or equipment to eavesdrop on
          their advanced communications, and others find it even harder
          to publicly acknowledge the theft of proprietary information
          when they find out about it.
             Whatever the reasons, industry and government experts say,
          few companies have taken any steps to guard their secrets
          from eavesdroppers.
             "About 90% of electronic communications is in a perilous
          state," says Lilia Rudesyle, an analyst with the National
          Security Agency, which maintains the government's most
          sophisticated electronic intelligence-gathering operations.
             Although the agency won't cite specific examples, it says
          long-distance phone conversations are routinely monitored by
          foreign governments and corporations searching for American
          technology. Similar monitoring is done by organized crime and
          for domestic industrial espionage, the NSA contends.
             Most U.S. companies "don't feel there's anybody
          sophisticated enough to go after their communications," says
          Robert P. Campbell, a Washington industrial security
          consultant. But he warns that electronic snoopers, using
          nothing more complex than a $100 scanner available in most
          electronics stores, "can have instant technology transfer
          faster than by stealing out of a safe."
             Some companies, such as Chrysler and IBM, say they
          scramble or encode important data, but see no problem in
          transmitting nonconfidential programs to their sales staffs
          over teleconferencing networks. Amway says STV Magazine's Mr.
          Schultheiss probably picked up one of the company's marketing
          programs on the Lifeline cable network. A Bank of America
          spokesman said it isn't possible to pick up the bank's data
          transmissions using ordinary satellite-television equipment.
          But the spokesman was uncertain about the possibilities of
          using more complex receivers.
             Satellite and microwave transmission, the most popular
          methods for corporations' private voice and data networks,
          probably present the greatest security challenge. Information
          can be picked up by satellite dishes, microwave receivers and
          other equipment that is widely available.
             Such equipment isn't cheap. "There are much easier and
          less costly ways of going about industrial espionage," says a
          spokesman for American Telephone & Telegraph Co. A study by
          the congressional Office of Technology Assessment determined
          that facilities to intercept and sort through microwave
          telephone circuits would cost $40,000. "But it can be done
          relatively easily and without the awareness of the network
          owner," the study warned.
             The federal government, believing that many foreign
          governments and companies already have made that investment,
          has launched a campaign to encourage U.S. corporations to
          guard their secrets.
             Eavesdropping isn't the only concern of satellite users.
          Last fall, two cable-television broadcasters experienced
          separate incidents of signal jamming, each lasting longer
          than 12 hours. The source of the interference is still a
          mystery.
             Although federal law specifically prohibits satellite
          tampering, other intrusions might not be covered by existing
          laws that were written years ago to deter old-fashioned
          wiretapping. A bill sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D., Vt.)
          would give new technologies, including "digitized phone
          calls, cellular and cordless calls and private-carrier
          calls," the same legal protection as conventional telephone
          conversations.
             That may not help much. Last year, California passed a law
          making it illegal to eavesdrop on cellular telephone calls or
          to sell the necessary eavesdropping devices. But the law is
          "virtually unenforceable" because eavesdropping can be done
          with almost any type of scanning device and can't be traced,
          says Stuart Crump, editor of Personal Communications, a trade
          magazine.
             The NSA is trying another approach. For many years, the
          agency has provided "secure," or encoded, telephones for the
          Pentagon and its contractors, and the agency has worked with
          companies that make encoding equipment for industry. The
          devices haven't been popular with companies outside the
          defense, oil and international banking businesses, in part
          because they are expensive and difficult to use.
             So last year, the NSA spent about $50 million to
          underwrite development costs of a third generation of
          less-expensive secure telephones. AT&T, Motorola Inc., and
          RCA Corp. are making the phones, known as "secure telephone
          unit 3," or STU 3. Motorola also is making a cellular
          version.
             Nicholas Piazzola, who heads the STU 3 project for the
          NSA, says the agency expects the phones to be available in
          1987 at a cost of about $2,000 each, compared with a current
          price of about $10,000. A market study projects
          private-sector demand of one million to two million phones.
             NSA officials acknowledge that they would retain the
          technical ability to break the STU 3 codes, although doing so
          would be illegal in the U.S. without a court order.
             Though some in the industry doubt that encoded phones will
       *  catch on, others say that growing concern over computer crime
          and surveillance is creating more demand for relatively
          inexpensive security products. "It's typical to use passwords
          to protect computers," says an industrial security manager
          for a large high-tech company. "But you could lose the whole
          show if you don't protect the telecommunications."


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