Spooks in the Wire 74
Salon is running a cool article about numbers stations - shortwave radio stations that broadcast encrypted messages to spies worldwide. I hadn't known about this, though it makes sense if you think about it - the U.S. government uses a similar scheme to communicate with nuclear subs at sea. The article includes links to a site which has .mp3 recordings of some of the transmissions. Spooky. They've even transcribed some messages for a possible crack attempt, though if the men in black are truly using one-time pads this seems (ahem) unlikely to succeed.
Re:One time pads (Score:1)
Man that is cool. How do I become a spy? (Score:1)
Re:One time pads (Score:1)
Furthermore, imagine that someone *did* intercept the one-time pad. He still doesn't necessarily know what broadcast it applies to. For example, the op could just know that letters from grandma apply to broadcasts on thursday at 3pm, letters from cousin Phil apply to thursday at 11pm, and so on. The spooks could engineer the whole thing to be so incredibly complex that it would not only be completely impossible to crack, but completely impossible to attempt a crack at all -- and yet still very easy for the op to commit the rules to memory.
These guys are making money... (Score:1)
Just wondering.. (Score:1)
Re:One time pads - Usenet (Score:1)
If you want to send a message to a spy somewhere with internet access you could just post the message to alt.test, or some other group where it wouldn't get cancelled as spam or offtopic. Then the spy DLs it and runs it through PGP...
It would be a lot less suspicious for a tech-stealing spy working at a megacorp that builds warplane for the government to be seen spending time on the computer reading usenet news than listening to a shortwave radio, jotting down numbers.
The messages would be easily filterable by the bad guys if they clued in, but there are many ways you could sneak something like this past them...
As was mentioned, on-topic posts on a botany list containing a hidden code. Depending on the length of the code message, this sort of thing could be done without changing the message much.
Smart cards with a serial port could revolutionize OTP systems. Simply burn a few hundred 1k blocks of OTP onto the card, then as each is used, it self destructs... Smart cards are already being built that do this if tampered with. The spy simply sends the message to the pad and enters a PIN, the card checks the next block to see if the code will decrypt the first two bytes of known plaintext (not a problem because it's not a cipher, knowing part of it doesn't help to know the rest) and if so, decrypts, sends the message back, and triggers some self destruct that burns out the rom in that block.
With this, spies could have what looks to be a regular telephone smartcard (in the EU at least) and might even function as one, but when used in a different way, laid on a reader (which would be fairly easy to build, needing only 3-4 wires) and sent an activation code (that the spy would memorize) they would start to function as OTP code units until unplugged, when they were revert to being phone cards. And perhaps, to help the spy, they could even be unlimited phone cards.
Re: numbers stations (Score:1)
which is several thousands of miles away needs
pretty large legs on the triangle.
Or a super-exact ex-NASA protractor...
Re: numbers stations (Score:1)
which is several thousands of miles away needs
pretty large legs on the triangle.
Or a super-exact ex-NASA protractor...
..--.. (Score:1)
--. . . -.- :) (Score:1)
Clever title, michael! (Score:1)
I wonder how many people got the pun...
General linkage on shortwave for beginners? (Score:1)
Re:One time pads (Score:1)
Interesting. I didn't know Rugby was in the VLF band. That's probably more efficient for you Brits, considering you're an island and can radiate directly off the continental shelf. Mostly we Yanks use the ELF grid out of northern Michigan, which radiates right thru the Earth. Using a half-click or so of wire for the antenna, you could easily build an ELF receiver, although the FCC, the NSA and the Navy might get kind of interested in why you were bothering.
For you uninitiated Linuxheads, the stuff we're talking here has incredible penetration power -- basically, anywhere subs are likely to operate -- but horrible bandwidth. A xmission for a very simple code meaning "USS So-and-so, hit your next window for satcom message to follow" can take on the order of minutes for a few bytes.
Read The Hunt for Red October, which is a bit dated and necessarily kinda squirrely on details but gives you a general sense of how the procedure works.
(Geez, this thread is starting to read like something outta sci.military.naval.)
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:1)
More quasi- sci.military.naval stuff, eh?
Navy RM's are no longer taught Morse as of (I believe) a year ago, and there are damn few left in the fleet who can use Morse. There's a small but vocal contingent of old-timers out there who suggest that losing a low-tech skill like Morse could put us at a disadvantage in a crunch -- like an InfoWar scenario where EMP and HERF are employed to knock back more sophisticated communications techniques.
Re:umm (Score:1)
first-hand experience with it
Re:General linkage on shortwave for beginners? (Score:1)
one time pads have been broken (Score:1)
After the Russians opened their archives, scholars started reading Venona traffic from *that* end and someone got around to asking, "Why does NSA still have all this stuff classified?" So the Venona decrypts were released. It turns out that the Rosenbergs weren't exactly the innocent victims of red-baiting that the Lefty press claimed for decades.
One time pads (Score:4)
In the days of pencil and paper, a one-time pad was easier to apply (usually simple addition) than an algorithmic cypher, and of course infinitely more secure. I can't see that the computer era would do anything but facilitate it.
Nuclear submarines at sea still receive VLF carrier modulated (morse code style) transmissions for low volume traffic as they are one of the few things that penetrate easily to patrol depths. The Royal Navy still uses Rugby WT for this purpose, and I know there is a US equivalent.
ELF and subs (Score:2)
One-time pads (Score:2)
Number Stations (Score:2)
Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:4)
First would be that some enterprising shortwave listeners have indeed "DF'd" these things (traced them to their source). One major source of Spanish and English language numbers stations is (no surprise) some sort of State Department or CIA (nobody is quite sure) facility near Warrenton, VA. I believe a few years ago that Monitoring Times ran a story on the guys who figured this out.
Second, I would disagree with the statement that these are outmoded by satellite communications. You must remember that these are spy communications; as such, this is still the ideal medium. Why? First of all, should a field agent be caught/interrogated/searched, a shortwave radio is a much more anonymous travelling accessory than some strange satellite contraption. Reliability is also an issue. One can purchase a shortwave radio in just about any business district in any part of the world. What if an agent in the field loses his one-off satellite communications unit?
Given the security that one-time pads provide, there really isn't a disadvantage to still use shortwave. Atmospheric conditions and propogation are always an issue, and at times can be less than reliable, but some of these stations are pumping out some *serious* power, and repeat their messages many times a day on different bands.
These things have been infamous for years with the shortwave listening community. They're a little less obscure in Europe; there, the shortwave bands are much more populated (especially the low frequency ones) by broadcasters that occasionally, numbers stations have been known to have been pushed down into the standard broadcast bands. In fact, one of Stereolab's albums features a long sample of a numbers station (Transient Random Noise Bursts with Announcements if you're interested, available just about anywhere).
Ozone Pilot
Re: numbers stations (Score:5)
for decades now. A lot of speculation has always
gone around regarding where they are coming from.
Years ago, the prevailing opinion was that they
were North-Korean spy stations broadcasting data
to field agents.
Shortwave listeners have always been very
interested in these spooky stations. There is
an organisation called World Utilitity Network
(WUN for short) and they publish a newletter every
week with this kind of information. It can be
found at http://www.wunclub.com/. For the
un-initiated: with the term utility station we
mean shortwave radio (30 MHz) users that are not
amateur radio operators.
There are many more resources out there on the
web. Without any doubt, they are rather exciting
to listen to. Sadly, the current tendency is that
shortwave communication is phases out by a lot of
these organisations in favor of satellite communications.
Re: numbers stations (Score:1)
These are easy and fun to listen to! (Score:2)
They're ueber-creepy late at night, though... and when you're listening to Agent Orange (depeche mode) on the stereo.. *shudder* ;)
Re: numbers stations (Score:1)
I understand that shortwave broadcast propogate rather well, but still, with a a directional antenna and a car, it should be possible to triangulate(using non-euclidian geometry! What fun!) to come up with a list of possible locations.
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:2)
It is interesting to observe though that some military organisations are starting to expand their presence on shortwave again. Satellites have the nasty habit of passing only once every 90 minutes and then being only visible for about 12 minutes when they have a maximum elevation of 90 degrees. And of course, if you are playing soldier on a spot where there is no 100% satellite coverage, this is a very real problem. This became clear when the operations in Yugoslavia were at their peak.
Rumor have it that the US army is even starting to train morse code operators again....
Re: numbers stations (Score:3)
not so easy as you might say. Shortwave signals
are refracted by the atmosphere, which is the
first reason why it might be harder to pinpoint
the origin. In worst case, you aim your antenna
at the last bouncing point somewhere in the
earth atmoshpere.
The second reason is that because of the good
propagation conditions on shortwave, you can hear
the signal coming from two sides. The earth is
more or less round, so you have a short path
propagation and a long path propagation.
The third reason is that the signals don't necessarily(sp?) originate from the country that
is responsible for transmitting them. In the case
of US stations, it is very possible that they
are broadcast from one of the allied countries
in Europe or the Pacific.
Also, if you want to triangulate a shortwave
station by car, you must realise that it very
possible for shortwave stations to reach for
several thousands of miles. To illustrate this,
I spoke to an Argentinian operator from the
Netherlands only last weekend, and I only used
a power of 100W. These number stations habitually
use several kilowatts. Triangulating a station
which is several thousands of miles away needs
pretty large legs on the triangle.
Of course, this doesn't mean its impossible to
determine the direction of HF signals, its just
a nicer challenge
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:1)
Shortwave is pretty idiot-proof. If you have the space for an antenna, and some electrical power, you can deploy anywhere on very short notice. I'm sure the military has not forgotten this.
Ozone Pilot
Padding (Score:2)
Of course this padding would be statistically indistinguishable from the OTP encrypted material they play the rest of the time, and about as "crackable".
damn, cook big brother is good for something (Score:2)
i want to hear the Swedish Rhapsodys!! (Score:1)
Re:One time pads (Score:1)
Totally cool (Score:1)
-=-=-=-=-
Re:One time pads (Score:3)
Not necessarily. A lot of people seem to have lost the distinction between sources of random data and sources of pseudo-random data in the era of the computer. Or discovered that what they thought was random really wasn't, even though they were really careful. Really, this has always been pretty much the only weakness of one time pads, though. And you can bet the folks broadcasting this stuff know where to get some grade A randomness. :-)
----
We all take pink lemonade for granted.
Re:one time pads have been broken (Score:1)
Re:One time pads (Score:1)
In the case of a spy or submarine, the pad could be exchanged when the recipient is in a secure location. A spy could be at his home base or an embassy, a sub could be docked in a naval harbor. Exchange pads. Send them on their way. You've got the closest to unbreakable there is.
If an enemy country invades your embassy or confiscates a diplomatic pouch, you're at war then. In order to retrieve a pad from a sub, you'd have to board it, which is pretty unlikely unless you're in a James Bond movie. Past that, you can only sink it, destroying the pad and recipient...
BTW: How is it that a *good* stream cipher can be decoded with a pen and paper? Doesn't sound all that good to me...
Bizarre Found Sounds (Score:1)
There were some links on the Art Bell web site awhile back to a recording some well-diggers made supposedly of Hell! It was obviously BS, but creepy none the less...
... .. --. .... (Score:1)
Codebook vs. One time pads (Score:1)
If it's just an endless stream of numbers I doubt it is a one time pad.
Think about it. This is probably used to communicate with many different agents, all of whom would use different codes. If it were a OTP, how do you know where your message begins except by attempting decoding at every point? Too tedious.
This is the first I've heard of numbers stations, but my guess would be that it's codebook based. That is, each agent would memorize a list of codes like this:
74123: Meet in the park at 4 PM
12486: Meet in the library at 10 AM
60789: Go to dropoff point
53726: Proceed with phase 2
83655: Disregard previous instructions
07991: Get the hell out of dodge
Then each agent would just listen for numbers that match one of his codes. Other numbers may be instructions for other agents, or may just be random cover traffic.
Easier to use than a OTP and no need to write down incriminating streams of numbers from the radio.
I seem to recall that something like this was used to communicate with the various resistance cells during WWII, though I think it was code words rather than numbers.
Re:These guys are making money... (Score:1)
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:1)
While I agree that the above statement is probably true, it is very curious to note that as of this fall, learning Morse code is no longer required at the US Naval Academy or at West Point. (I don't know about the Air Force Academy) It will be interesting to note if the military academies quickly add this topic back to their requirements.
only visible for about 12 minutes ... no 100% satellite coverage...
Interesting. While in northern Italy last summer, I watched a US Army Major I was traveling with use a satelite phone continuously for several hours. This phone looked like a laptop with the dish concealed in plastic where the screen would normally be. No, I don't remember the manufacturer's name. He didn't have a problem with "no 100% coverage" with his consumer-grade satellite communication system. I'm very curious as to why the US military's system would be much more limited than a cheap (relative, I was told the sat. phone was only $12 per minute to anywhere in the world) consumer system.
Numbers station sound files (Score:3)
http://www.cisquet.demon.nl/soundsframe
Re:One time pads (Score:2)
Most compromises of secret information involve people - not fancy algorithms, and one-time pads are a real people problem. They are easily lost, destroyed, stolen, or exhausted.
Hmm... (Score:1)
I wonder what other sort of bizarre communication techniques are being used. Perhaps there's some huge rigs someplace in the world thumping out morse code for a spy with a stethescope or seizmograph.
I don't know if I can hear the humming, the voices in my head tend to drown anything else out.
Re:umm (Score:1)
Major Expense (Score:1)
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:1)
You are probably right, but the system that he was using is probably a system that consists of more than one satellite. More or less comparable to cell phones. The Iridium network is such a initiative. They make sure that at any one time at least one satelite is visible over the horizon. Problem is that Iridium is a public network and not a military one. I dont know if the military has similar networks of their own.
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:1)
Re:Bizarre Found Sounds (Score:1)
This Hell recording sounds intriguing/amusing...
Re:Codebook vs. One time pads (Score:1)
Simple actually: My messages will always start at 12 minutes past every even hour (UTC), and the first three letters will always decode to 'NNN'. If I start decoding at the appropriate time and the letters don't match, it wasn't for me.
...phil
Re:Bizarre Found Sounds (Score:1)
Encoded messages in newspapers, too (Score:1)
The Oil is Shot
ConserVation R Ancientis Best
No Ala-R-min But Oil is all Orbit
Anyone experience anything similar in their newspapers? Can anyone figure out what this means? I'm starting to wonder now just how many encrypted messages we see in a typical day. I'm guessing this isn't the only one.
By all means, we should have a right to encode messages to send them back and forth, but when the encrypted messages appear in public such as this, or as in Number Stations, does it do something to decrease overall public morale? I see it as a challenge to decipher, but because I'm not the intended destination of the message, there's something about doing so that sends a shiver through my body...
In any case, it does little but add fuel to conspiracy theories. What we don't know may not hurt us, but what we see and aren't intended to know are the things that haunt, and even frighten us.
Encoded messages in newspapers, too (Score:1)
The Oil is Shot
ConserVation R Ancientis Best
No Ala-R-min But Oil is all Orbit
Anyone experience anything similar in their newspapers? Can anyone figure out what this means? I'm starting to wonder now just how many encrypted messages we see in a typical day. I'm guessing this isn't the only one.
By all means, we should have a right to encode messages to send them back and forth, but when the encrypted messages appear in public such as this, or as in Number Stations, does it do something to decrease overall public morale? I see it as a challenge to decipher, but because I'm not the intended destination of the message, there's something about doing so that sends a shiver through my body...
In any case, it does little but add fuel to conspiracy theories. What we don't know may not hurt us, but what we see and aren't intended to know are the things that haunt, and even frighten us.
Re: numbers stations (Score:1)
Re:Not that big of a mystery.. (Score:2)
Re:One time pads (Score:1)
I'm guessing that it's some kind of stream cipher. With a stream cipher, you just start with a key and go from there as long as you need to. Some good stream ciphers can be decoded with pen and paper, and I would guess that these spooks aren't able to carry around little computers or code books. And the spook agencies have been using stream ciphers for many decades now, they probably have some very good ones.
BTW, I've heard these stations on shortwave myself, ever since the seventies. With all the whirr and buzz I had on my cheap shortwave sets as a kid, it sounded real spooky. Wouldn't want to hear it any other way.
Re:These are easy and fun to listen to! (Score:1)
...phil
ELF transmissions (Score:2)
Re:i want to hear the Swedish Rhapsodys!! (Score:1)
You can find a link to the Swedish Rhapsody here [easyspace.com] (in Real Audio).
I'm gonna buy a radio I guess ;)
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