Posted on 06/16/2014 1:34:15 PM PDT by winoneforthegipper
So the radios and encryption equipment are useless to an enemy?
I’m sure anything they use to communicate is monitored by a dozen different agencies.
Yes. When you don’t have encryption keys and such. Yes, nothing but a heavy piece of junk.
See Post 40.
Iraqi Army was trained in that, and they have all the hardware to service these radios. ISIS only needs to recruit one (1) soldier who can teach others. With $450M of cash at hand, ISIS can certainly hire such a guy. In those lands everything is for sale.
Hopefully, NSA built in a back door ...
Those are radios for battlefield communication. The information that they are used to send is expiring within hours, if not faster. It takes too much time to decrypt, even if it is possible at all.
They’re not heavy at all, actually. I was always afraid we’d break them they were so small and frail-looking. These probably don’t even take Type III encryption. Usually team radios only take Type I.
Even if they had fills in them, they wouldn’t be much use for secure comms.
If the IA is even remotely competent (big “if” there), they changed their crypto fills once the radios were compromised.
However....
1) The radios are usable in “plain text” mode or whatever the equivalent is on these. That means you’re transmitting in the clear—no encryption, so use at your own risk.
2) Even if they have fills, usually these small squad/team radios only take Type I encryption, not the hefty Type III like our forces use in our vehicles or other, larger man-portable radios (RT1523, PRC-117F/G, etc). That means that, even if a group didn’t know the encryption, a halfway decent SIGINT crew could crack it without too much effort.
As recent events in Iraq go, this one is not a big deal at all.
To go back to my original post.
To: winoneforthegipper
“The Iraqi military would and should have changed their encryption keys after the equipment was lost, but new encryption could be emplaced by individuals with specific training and equipment.
If that becomes the case, the communications equipment would allow ISIS fighters to coordinate over greater distances without interference from adjacent enemy units.”
26 posted on 6/16/2014 1:52:55 PM by ansel12
But they’re still dealing in Type I encryption. Not exactly secure.
My guess is that distance and enhanced communication capabilities is a good enough gain for them.
Maybe, but these folks have no shortage of cell phones and FRS radios, and these radios are very similar to the latter. Encryption capabilities are about the only leg-up these radios have on FRS.
I guess, we used to take our advanced radios and communications trucks so serious though, in the 1980s.
A standard infantry platoon has many, many methods of communication even up to data access for dismounted troops. This kind of radio was basic, barebones, sometimes barely worked at all, especially in a dense urban environment. My PLT didn’t have these exact radios (we used ICOMs for this task), but the principle is the same. We actually weren’t allowed to say anything particularly sensitive over these radios due to their comparatively insecure crypto.
Thanks winoneforthegipper.
It’s obvious that they already had a good communications system.
The radio in the article was just an example because it was in a photograph,
The radios and encryption devices we worried about were far more advanced than regular infantry carried.
Nonetheless, they seem to be taking over advanced and massive amounts military equipment, along with the bank vaults.
They are becoming for the first time, a true terrorist Army.
Yeah, could have been more clear by what I meant. Having ‘humped a ruck’ as a FAC, I always considered anything not entirely useful, as these are without proper crypto tapes and such, as ‘heavy.’ It was my particular way. . . just me talking.
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