Re: [TSCM-L] {4581} Solution for Secure Land Line?

From: ed <ber..._at_netaxs.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:38:28 -0500

> How is traffic analysis of the Cryptophone users blocked?

It's not. Secure phones aren't designed to do that. Obviously,
encrypted communications users should practice methods to obfuscate
intelligence that could be gained by eavesdroppers using traffic
analysis, if that concerns them.

The landline and free Windows client versions of Cryptophone have no
unique embedded address (as GSM and Satellite Cryptophones phones do),
so users could use them with a variety of landlines from different
locations to establish communications in ways that obfuscate the
communicating parties' identities.

Even if a Cryptophone's communications is recorded, a new random
encryption key is used for each call and discarded when it ends
(one-time pad.)


> One wonders if the peddlers are under contract to finger miscreants
> with their "absolutely" secure packages.

One would wonder that until they got to know them ;-) Cryptophone's
people have long possessed a strong "hacker ethic" and
anti-authoritarian principles. COMSEC is their passion. Choose your
vendor by looking at their primary sources of income. Would you trust
a COMSEC vendor whose primary source of income is from government
agencies? I wouldn't. History proves that's a bad bet if one is
concerned about government eavesdropping.

Cryptophone doesn't claim to offer "absolutely" secure solutions; they
uniquely claim theirs are the most *verifiably* secure solutions
available to the general public. Other secure phone vendors offer
only proprietary solutions with unverifiable security.


> Crypto use is a red flag to ID targets unless the signal is hidden in
> a wrapper of ordinary transmissions. Onion routers once claimed to
> do that, but it is not clear there are not solutions to crack and track
> all the layers of wrapping.

True, but using TOR is one of the better methods most people have to
obfuscate internet traffic analysis. Improved methods are being
developed on both sides of the fence. The more people use these
methods to seek privacy, the more difficult they make it for
eavesdroppers. That's the game, and that's as good as it gets.

-ed

p.s. - Disclaimer: i have no financial interest in Cryptophone, but
have personally known its principals for many years and trust and
respect them. don't take my word for it--form your own opinions about
people you know.
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:25 CST