Hi-tech hackers crack NSW police force $22 million encrypted radio system

[TVR-190]

Hi-tech hackers crack NSW police force $22 million encrypted radio system | thetelegraph.com.au

IT was a $22 million encrypted radio system meant to keep police business secret from unwanted eavesdroppers.

But hi-tech hackers cracked the system within 12 months, selling off the technology to tow-truck drivers for up to $25,000 a time. In the past weeks police have changed the code after discovering the radios were also in the hands of criminals, particularly bikies.

NSW police implemented the system three years ago for security reasons.

But within a year tow truck operators were paying $12,000 to have "exclusive rights" to radios encrypted for their area and promised competitors would not have access to the same channel. For $25,000 the entire encrypted system could be bought, enabling the purchaser to listen in on all police channels throughout the metropolitan area.

It is believed more than a dozen tow truck drivers have been listening to the police network throughout Sydney for at least two years and in some cases longer.

NSW police are refusing to even acknowledge there has been any security breakdown with its radio network, which is severely embarrassing to the force. Police were confident the system was foolproof.

It's understood no one has been charged and police still have very little idea how the encrypted codes became so freely available.

Country and regional areas have not been encrypted because of the prohibitive cost.

When asked about the fact the system had been compromised and whether any one had been charged, police refused to answer.

"The NSW Police Force employs a range of strategies to ensure the security and integrity of its communications," said Assistant Commissioner Peter Barrie, who is in charge of the police communications branch. "Those strategies and their effectiveness are regularly reviewed."

A tow-truck driver who had been in possession of a radio for more than two years said yesterday: "The cops have fixed the problem for now. Everyone says their radios have gone dead."

One person recently paid $23,000 to have access to all channels. It was only after word leaked that bikies, and not just towies had been able to acquire the radios, that police acted.

HAHAH FAIL.

The only thing this system ever accomplished was stopping news outlets reporting on crime since they couldn't listen in.

[Julie]

hehe I used to love listening to the police radio online was quite interesting and comical at times.

[87RB30VL]

We still have a huge old scanner we used to use to listen to cops, truckies etc lol good times

[DAKSTER]

yeah you can listen to some but not all of what they say, and depends where you are. Its not all encrypted.

It just makes me laugh though, i remember having an argument about optic fibre v wireless in which someone told me that 256k encryption was uncrackable so wireless was totally safe. Given that the police cant even make their 256k encrypted radio signals secure, I dont know how anyone can make a wireless internet connection totally secure either

[greenacc]

If one guy can come up with a code, another guy will always be able to come up with a way to crack it.

[DAKSTER]

Yep that was my point. For any code to be useful, there needs to be a decoder, a key, or it cant be read at the other end. Anything that has a key can be opened, all you need is to find the key.

The Allied forces had the key to Enigma, the Nazi decoding system, for nearly 2 years without the Nazis knowing, so the Allieds were always a step in front. They rescued it off a sinking submarine, the Germans had no idea it had been saved.
The Allieds then knew what Hitler was up to and what he was planning, and fed him false info that led him in the direction they wanted him to go. This cost Hitler the war, the Nazis thought their system was uncrackable.. but they lost a key..

If the cops used their brains, they wouldnt have told anyone they knew the system was compromised. They could trip a lot of people like that, giving out false information could be useful to the cops in so many ways.

Shows you how lucrative and competitive towing is though, when the tow trucks are willing to pay all that cash for the chance to be first at an accident..

[CapriciousWL]

You can still get the police radio on line. Limited areas.

I was in Hong Kong in 2007 when DVD was first released. They said at the time it would spell the end for VCD(which it did thankfully) as well as other new video mediums.

They also said it couldn't be copied.

In 48 hours there were pirate DVDs on the shelves in TST and other suburbs in Hong Kong.

If you can make it, someone can hack it.

If someone maintains it for you, they have the codes and can be corrupted.......

[TVR-190]

Heres a good little article from when they introduced the encryption.

IF the NSW police force spent as much time, energy and resources controlling Sydney's streets as it does trying to control the media this city would be a much safer place to live.

Over the past decade the police media unit has grown from a couple of coppers who had a good phone manner when talking to journalists to a full-blown multi-million dollar spin unit.

Its aim is simple: To control the information being given to the public.

Now, the police have rolled out the ultimate weapon in secrecy under the guise of "terror related security."

The encryption of police radio scanners, which for decades have been a source of information to media outlets, effectively shuts the media out of what is happening on the streets and - more importantly - making sure they cannot get to a crime scene and report, photograph or film it.

What's left in its place is nothing more than a police sanitised version of events.



No one denies that police need a secure radio network to stop criminals listening in on police operations.

No one denies that we should be vigilant against terrorists.

But not at the sake of the public's right to know. Not as an excuse to impose censorship on the media.

The dramatic arrest of the man who went to Star City Casino with three guns in May and allegedly shot his ex-girlfriend was only photographed because news of the shooting came across ambulance radio, which is the only source for finding out about violence or injury resulting from crimes or accidents.

There is no reason why the media had to be locked out of the police network which they have been allowed to access for decades.

It would have been a lot simpler - and cheaper - to give media outlets encrypted radios, even charge them for it and make sure they followed strict rules.

When Assistant Commissioner Bob Waites, who is in charge of operational communications, was asked why this couldn't be done he had no answer. He shrugged his shoulders and said sharing radio information with the media was not an option as far as police were concerned.

For 50 years media organisations have worked with police by monitoring radio scanners. Many police forces in the US give local press outlets encrypted radios. And as for having security benefits when it comes to terrorism, New York City does not even have encrypted radios.

What has been served up as "access" by the police is a cleverly designed information relay system called PEATS.

The media was told not to worry - we'd be kept in the loop.

But we were hoodwinked and out-smarted. The information being delivered by this internet system of police call-outs is nothing short of non-information.

The details it relays are distorted, disguised and delayed - if the information is released at all.

According to PEATS we must have the best behaved city in the world. In the past six months there has not been one shooting, stabbing, brawl or armed hold up in Sydney.

You see, a shooting is not a shooting, it's a "concern for welfare".

A brawl is, "concern for welfare".

A stabbing is a, "concern for welfare".

Armed robbery are not armed, they are robberies. Violence is sanitised from the record by the PEATS system.

But the biggest concern for welfare is public safety. Don't get me wrong, the police media unit are proficient at pumping out press releases informing of stabbing, shootings and the like when they feel like it. However, it is normally in sanitised language and so long after the event that there is little chance of the media interviewing witnesses or victims.

Former police spoken to by The Daily Telegraph conceded that the police hierarchy does not want the media knowing what was going on.

The latest move by police is even more sinister when taken in tandem with the fact many police are too scared to talk to journalists anymore. It is career stifling.

Rumours of phone taps persist and any request under freedom of information to answer whether police have tapped journalists phones are also denied.

The fact that phone conversations were taped between officer Adam Purcell and journalists were publicly aired at a PIC hearing was taken by police as a clear warning: Do not talk to journalists.

The solution is simple. Media outlets could be given encrypted radios and a code of conduct set up to ensure that police concerns about security are met.

This would solve what appears to be a growing trend by, not just police, but government to control all aspects of information being given to the public.

According to police spokesman Strath Gordon, senior police say they would be happy to have the media at crime scenes.

But for this to happen police need to tell the media about the crimes when they happen, not hours and hours after.

[DAKSTER]

You can still get the police radio on line. Limited areas.

I was in Hong Kong in 2007 when DVD was first released. They said at the time it would spell the end for VCD(which it did thankfully) as well as other new video mediums.

They also said it couldn't be copied.

In 48 hours there were pirate DVDs on the shelves in TST and other suburbs in Hong Kong.

If you can make it, someone can hack it.

If someone maintains it for you, they have the codes and can be corrupted.......

2007? lol an edit may be in order... otherwise, totally agree

[CapriciousWL]

2007? lol an edit may be in order... otherwise, totally agree

Correct - should have read 1997. Time flies.....