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NuKE Issue 08-010
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NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_NuKE_N
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NuKE Info-Journal #8
April 1994
[This article, written by Savage Beast, was a published by a small magazine
security magazine in france, called "Stratgie Scurit". I somewhat tried
to the best of my abilty to translate it into english. I must say that the
european french is a great deal different compared to the french I tend
to hear and work with here in Canada. Anyhow here it is, I somewhat cropped
off the ending, as I couldn't take it anymore! (sorry savage) But Its
theme is not lost, and I'm sure Savage can fax or email you its complete
document (in french though) to you.]
NATEL D ; For British and American secret service, Natel D presents a
major inconvenient: it protects conversations from being listened to
illegally. However, the spies have won; our systems are now aesier to
decrypt. This threatens our freedom of privacy: listening in on telephone
conversations, interception of faxes and computer
communications.NATEL D
For British and American secret service, Natel D presents a
major inconvenient: it protects conversations from being listened to
illegally. However, the spies have won; our systems are now easier to
decrypt. Our freedom of privacy is threatened by systematic monitoring
of telephone conversations, interception of faxes and computer
communications.
- From the Royal Family...
Listening-in on the telephone conversations of the Royal
Family hass become a good way for tabloid journalists to win their lives.
This job does not necessitate big investments: any scanner can pick up
radio waves from first generation mobile phones. In other words, we
may be free of geographical constraints, but not from scrupulous
competitors. The tabloid "The Sun" has thus released an audiotape of a
quarrel between Prince Charles and Diana.
...to businessmen
To answer to businessmen's worries, major manufacturers of
telephones (Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, Matra, Nokia, Siemens), got
together with the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) to
try to come up with some way of preventing the illegal monitoring of
phone conversations. Etsi (European Technical Standard Institute) -
which is closely associated with Switzerland - came up with the A5 (256
bits), a cryptage algorithm which transforms voice intonations into
binary.
Natel D
The result: large, expensive, sophisticated equipment - a huge,
untransportable computer in a common car - can violate the encryption
of the smallest radiotelephones: the Natel D.
"People will have a device almost as sophisticated as the Rita in
their hands. Rita being the Thompson system destined to the military."
Quote from Parisian daily paper "Liberation".
First introduced on March 9th at the auto show in Geneva, Natel
D now counts 2500 subscribors as opposed to 230 000 subscribors to
Natel C.
Secret Services
However, there is one problem, this small jewel is a catastrophy
for secret services. Even the GCHQ (Great Britain) "can no longer
intercept conversations between drug dealers and other delinquents who
use this system" reveals the London Times. Even more embarrassing is
the fact that the monitoring of phone conversations simply required
basic, rudimentary equipment which could easily be used without the
need of a warrant. It is now extremely difficult to use sophisticated
eqipment without the approval of a judge.
The GSM is not satisfied with simply taking over the European
market, it is now after Australia, South Africa, Arabia, Singapour and
Hong Kong. Last November, the British demanded that the algorithm be
modified. In other words, that Natel D become easier and faster to
decrypt. This request, says "Le Monde du Renseignement", a
confidential letter edited in Paris, showed for the first time that
"cryptage technology is the object of very powerful coordination of
accidental information services, though non official nor secret".
Brussels, who, in less than two months, managed to avoid the National
Security Agency (NSA), gathered the manufacturers of numerical
cellular phones to put together a "soft" algorithm.
With no other choice, the GSM gave birth to the A5X (only 56
bits), since then renamed A5-2, also from Etsi and accessible to anty
computer.
The Radical Party
The manufacturers who did not bend to the secret services'
expectations risked losing their contracts with the United States.
Unbelievable?
"What surprises me the most is that this whole situation can
blow up in broad daylight" says Alain Henchoz, chief editor of "Securite
Environnement", publication of "La Revue Polytechnique".
The World of Finances
Behind this interpellation stand the important members of the
Radical Party: Geog Stucky, Vreni Spoery, Paul Wyss, Ernst
Muhlemann. And so, Zurich's world of finances and business.
They simply understood that the fight against terrorism, put forward by
the spies, trying to justify the modification of Natel D, was only an alibi.
As for proof, this radiotelephone does in fact encrypt conversations, but
not the location of the subscribors. So neither the Sicilian Mafia, nor
the Columbian drug cartel have any benefit in using it.
The United States
Behind all this are the United States. Didn't they just center
their information services on financial, technological and industrial
espionnage of their European and Japonnese competitors? "The United
States still only dispose of one analogical system less powerful than the
one put together by the GSM in which Canada and the Asian countries
are most interested in. To lose such a position in the market enrages
them" comments Christian Bonnet, "mobile communication" teacher at
Eurecom, an institution created at Sophia Antipolis by France Telecom
and the Ecole Polytechnique in Lausanne.
For now, the Federal Council denies that, even though the
position of Switzerland against our European partners, with whom we
have set up this pan-european radiotelephone system, "should not isolate
our country". Switzerland should follow the european heard.
A5-2
The manufacturers' publicity concerning Natel D has been
slightly modified. Now, encrypt confidential communications such as
bank accounts can be read without difficulty by the United States.
The Americans are Watching You
There's no way to send an encrypt electronic message or your
own voice over the phone: the United States has a double of your
supposedly secret code.
It is the smallest yet the most terrifying spy in the world. It is
unlike any other spy and only speaks the binary languague, the 0 or the 1.
This little monster goes under the name of "Clipper Chip". His future is
very promising. Eventually, it will be able to decrypt any information
transmitted by phone, fax or computer.
The Perfect Spy
The perfect double agent: doesn't leave a trace and will betray
his master every time the United States will ask. In other words, The use
of the "Clipper Chip" will be authorized as long as the United States has a
copy of your secret code, and therefore decrypt your message.
Neither the United States nor the Clinton Administration are
denying it: The "Clipper Chip" will become the new way of decrypting
voice, fax or computer communications.
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