XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.security, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   From: robin_listas@es.invalid   
      
   On 2026-01-22 00:19, c186282 wrote:   
   > On 1/21/26 16:42, Carlos E.R. wrote:   
   >> On 2026-01-21 00:51, c186282 wrote:   
   >>> https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-sky-full-secrets-glaring-   
   >>> vulnerabilities.html   
   >>>   
   >>> With $800 of off‐the‐shelf equipment and months' worth of patience,   
   >>> a team of U.S. computer scientists set out to find out how   
   >>> well geostationary satellite communications are encrypted. And   
   >>> what they found was shocking.   
   >>>   
   >>> Close to half of the communications beamed from satellites to   
   >>> the ground that the researchers were able to listen in on were   
   >>> not encrypted. This included sensitive data including cellular   
   >>> text messages, voice calls,   
   >>   
   >> SMS were never encrypted. I think voice calls between the towers and   
   >> the terminals were encrypted (I read somewhere long ago that they used   
   >> the example configuration for encryption, so the key was known). The   
   >> communications between the towers and the exchanges were not   
   >> encrypted, unless radio transmission systems employed some encryption   
   >> of their own.   
   >>   
   >> Can't confirm any of this currently, but it was correct around year 2000.   
   >   
   >    At least cell towers are kind of "local" - however   
   >    this involves the geostationary relay sats, meaning   
   >    anyone with an antenna kind of a third of the way   
   >    around the globe can tune in to the rebroadcast.   
   >   
   >    So, you move funds from your Credit Suisse acct to   
   >    Bank Of America in NYC, spies in Iceland, or Paraguay,   
   >    can maybe grab all your numbers.   
   >   
   >    This is like 1980 thinking, back when the net was tiny   
   >    and only a few 'professionals' sent important stuff back   
   >    and forth. Security ? Who NEEDS it ???   
      
   I am only talking of SMS and phone calls. The standards are old, it was   
   considered impossible to access the cables carrying the trunks.   
   Technology was naive.   
      
   At some point probably they thought that the transmission department   
   would do the encryption when possible and advisable. The switching   
   department needed the trunks in the clear. The available machines could   
   not do encryption.   
      
   I don't know if the new methods using VoIP use encryption.   
      
      
   --   
   Cheers, Carlos.   
   ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)