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[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Should Saddam have been using PGP? Iraqi crypto broken...



------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Wed, 9 Apr 2003 01:17:57 -0400
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
Subject:        	FC: Should Saddam have been using PGP? Iraqi crypto broken...
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com



----- Forwarded message from Tim May -----

From: Tim May
Subject: Crypto in Baghdad--Jaguar and Saddam's Bunker
To: cypherpunks
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 20:02:01 -0700
X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.551)

I heard an intriguing story about 24 hours ago while channel surfing
between CNN, MSNBC, and Fox. I came in late on a story where a woman
reporter or anchor was explaining in detail how the U.S. and British
had broken Saddam's supposedly secure communications system. I hear
her mention "Jaguar."

This was in connection with the 4 2000-lb bombs dropped where he was
believed to be staying.

Then the main anchor said something about this maybe being sensitive
information.

I listened for a repeat of this story--usually the same reports are
recycled ad nauseum, picked up by other networks, etc. I figured a
reliable report that the "Coalition" (I hate that word, but I'm tired
of saying "U.S. and Brits") had broken all of Saddam's communications
would be interesting.

Nothing. At least nothing on the 3 satellite channels I monitor.

However, it looks like the story got picked up some in the press. And,
sure enough, the Fox report is credited. Considering how Geraldo was
chased out of Iraq for drawing a sketch in the sand, I wonder what
will happen to the reporter who broke this story?

Needless to say, it reaffirms what we have long known about the
dangers of buying crypto gear from First World countries, who only
sell gear they know how to break.

Saddam should have been using PGP.

Here's an excerpt from the online story:

"But Fox News Channel reported that coalition forces were guided to
the site after breaking into Saddam's coded communication system,
known as a Jaguar security encryption system.

"He reportedly bought the system 20 years ago from the British, when
it was guaranteed secure. But the Brits had since figured out how to
infiltrate the system they designed - and passed on the information to
the United States, Fox reported. "

<http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/72979.htm>

Other reports are saying it was a Racal Jaguar V, a system sold to
Iraq almost 20 years ago. Some excerpts:

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,932739,00.html>

--begin excerpt--
"On Monday, however, some outdated British technology was involved.
Saddam's hunters zeroed in on an old communications system made by the
British company Racal, which the Iraqi leadership bought during the
Iran-Iraq war for sending encrypted communications among themselves.

At the time, the Racal Jaguar V was a sophisticated secure combat
radio system, equipped with two main security mechanisms: encryption
to scramble message content and frequency-hopping at the rate of up to
200 times a second to make eavesdropping difficult and defeat enemy
electronic jamming measures.

According to the New York Post yesterday, the British cracked the
encryption code for the radios some time ago and passed the
information to the Americans.

Steven Aftergood, a senior intelligence technology researcher at the
Federation of American Scientists, said: "If it was really a
20-year-old system, then one has to assume that the encryption is
obsolete, that it has been penetrated."

Other military analysts said it was just as likely that the British
government would only have granted Racal export licences for the
radios if it had already been satisfied it could break the encryption.

Ruper Pengelly, the technical editor of Jane's, said: "All of these
exports had to be approved by the government, particularly encryption.
It was generally understood that only encryption up to a certain level
would be licensed for export, so if they allowed it out of the country
it was a safe bet that it was crackable, although that is something
they could never say publicly."

The first consignment of Jaguar radios to Iraq was in 1985, says
Kenneth Timmerman, a journalist specialising in the Middle East and
arms sale networks. Four years later, the British government licensed
the sale of 13 Jaguar radios at a cost of $360,000 (#225,000). In the
same year, according to Timmerman, Saddam bought 2,000 Jaguar kits
worth $48m, and $4m of encryption technology. --end excerpt--


--Tim May
(.sig for Everything list background)
Corralitos, CA. Born in 1951. Retired from Intel in 1986.
Current main interest: category and topos theory, math, quantum 
reality, cosmology.
Background: physics, Intel, crypto, Cypherpunks

----- End forwarded message -----



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