NW_AZ_Granny just sent me this!
MY QUESTION!!!! Is THIS WHY the Radio's FAILED on 9/11 between the Police AND FIRE department? IS THIS why the FIREMEN COULDN'T HEAR THE EVACUATION ORDER???!!!!
http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb04/210889.asp Judge denies secrecy request in police-radio hacking case
By REID J. EPSTEIN
repstein@journalsentinel.com Posted: Feb. 27, 2004
A federal judge in Madison denied a request Friday to keep secret testimony related to techniques possibly used to jam Madison police radio signals and replace them with the sounds of sex acts.
Motorola Inc., which makes the radio communications equipment for the Madison Police Department, asked that U.S. Magistrate Judge John C. Shabaz close the courtroom and seal the transcripts for any testimony from Motorola witnesses and from Rajib K. Mitra, the former University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate student charged with two counts of transmitting communications to a protected police computer.
Mitra, 25, a graduate of Brookfield East High School, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine if convicted. His trial begins Monday.
In a brief to the court on Motorola's behalf, Motorola's attorneys wrote that "access to the confidential information . . . would enable would-be copycats, hackers and even terrorists to access and disable the communications systems used by more than 8,000 First Responder systems worldwide, including the City of Madison Police Department. It is hard to imagine a more serious threat to our nation's security."
Mitra's Madison attorney, Chris Van Wagner, responded Friday with a brief saying that closing the courtroom would prejudice the jury against his client.
The closing of the courtroom, Van Wagner wrote, "will leave the jury with a clear sense that something about this man named Rajib Mitra (whose physical make-up and appearance are clearly consistent with those persons labeled terrorists with whom the current administration wages war) requires highly unusual and elaborate secrecy."
Van Wagner declined to comment Friday.
Steve Gorecki, a Motorola spokesman, said Friday that the company would dispatch two of its engineers to explain the radio technology to the court. He discounted the link to terrorism, saying Motorola is seeking to protect its copyrighted technology.
"It's a matter of protecting trade secrets and proprietary information that allows these public safety systems to work," Gorecki said.
Mitra faces charges in connection with incidents in Madison on the nights of Oct. 31 and Nov. 11. At 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31, police reported an incessant tone overriding their radio frequencies, rendering hand-held radios useless and leaving police unable to communicate with each other.
One officer was unable to call for first aid to help an injured person, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim O'Shea said.
Three hours after the tone appeared, police radio technicians switched the department's frequency to a different channel. After 20 minutes, the tone followed, O'Shea said. The channel was switched again, but the tone did not follow until hours later. At 3:15 a.m., technicians switched the channel again, but the tone did not follow.
Police later traced the signals to N. Orchard St., where Mitra lived at the time.
On Nov. 11, police experienced another disruption. Audio clips of a woman moaning sounded on their frequencies 13 times during a nearly three-hour span, according to police records. After the signals were again traced to N. Orchard St., police obtained a search warrant for Mitra's apartment.
On Mitra's computer, officials found a Motorola wiring harness that, O'Shea said, is capable of transmitting radio frequencies. They also found several computers and papers listing all Madison police radio frequencies.
Mitra was released to his parents in Brookfield, who were ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen L. Crocker to remove all but one of their home's computers and all unused electronic equipment.
Mitra's father, Samir, an anesthesiologist, was required to install a combination padlock on the door of his office, which holds the family's last remaining computer.
Crocker ordered Rajib Mitra to not use wireless or cellular phones, to not take apart any household appliances and not to use any device that could otherwise send or receive electronic messages.
This case is not the first time Rajib Mitra has been accused of computer crimes.
In 1998, he was convicted of hacking into the University of Iowa's computer systems while on probation for the same thing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.